Tomerong Tip Part 3- Environmental Issues.

Water Quality and Environmental Issues


Development, particularly industrial development, in sensitive environmental areas must be proven to be benign or beneficial to the biodiversity, water and air quality of that area. This is spelled out in detail in the government's environmental legislation and the South Coast Regional Strategy.

It is clearly impossible for this proposal to meet those criteria and therefore renders the proposal completely unsustainable. The Tomerong quarry is in an area of high environmental significance, being in the catchment of St Georges Basin with the major feeder stream, Tomerong Creek, running mere metres past the quarry and its leachate/holding dams, and the headwaters of Moona Moona Creek and the Jervis Bay catchment.

Any toxic spill from this site would have serious consequences for Tomerong Creek and St Georges Basin.
The applicant cannot guarantee that there will be no leaching of toxins from this site or overflows of
polluted water, especially during extreme rainfall events. The reliance on mechanical pumping devices to reticulate water through the site and maintain leachate pond levels is problematic.

The applicant has already identified issues with ground water moving through the rock profile in locations above the current ground level of approx 13.5 AHD.
The precautionary principle must be applied to protect the already stressed St Georges Basin and its surrounding environment due to the applicant's inability to guarantee no leachate or toxic water overflows from the site. The leachate will be toxic - it is unsuitable for irrigating the site and toxins will be transferred into the catchment if the leachate is used as irrigation via aerosol action of sprayed water containing particulate.

Accidents happen and any pollution event resulting in toxins being released into Tomerong Creek could be catastrophic. St Georges Basin is already pushed to the brink of environmental health by the development
around it. This was recently recognised in the Federal Government's decision to stop any further housing
development within the catchment at the location known as Heritage Estates which would have directly impacted upon St Georges Basin.

To allow a large facility storing toxic solid and liquid (leachate) waste in the catchment of a still healthy, precious natural resource can only be described as epic folly. To quote Council staff, "there is only a very narrow buffer between the quarry and the sensitive water bodies leading to significant waterways".