The decision on the expansion of the Martins Creek Quarry has now moved to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) after the project was given the green light by the NSW Department of Planning.
Daracon is seeking to extract 1.1 million tonnes of material from the quarry each year for up to 25 years – half a billion tonnes would be transported by road annually through 280 truck movements a day.
The project was on exhibition last year for 60 days with the Department and it received 670 public submissions. Of those just 31 supported the project, 634 were against the project going ahead and the remaining 5 were just comments on the project.
Economic, environmental and social impacts of the revised project were the main source of concern including impacts to heritage, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions and the most frequently raised theme was surrounding traffic and transport with regard to the huge increase in truck movements to and from the quarry.
Issues beyond the scope of the project included court proceedings relating to the Martins Creek Quarry that were being undertaken at the time of the original project application and the previous operations at the quarry.
In 2018 Dungog Council took Daracon to the NSW Land and Environment Court and the company was found to be operating the mine beyond it’s approved capacity illegally.
From October of that year, the quarry had to operate in accordance with an Interim Environmental Management Plan as agreed to with Council which placed limits on extraction and processing volumes, track numbers and operating hours.
Despite the number of submissions against the project, the Department considered that “the benefits of the Project outweigh its residual costs and that the Project is in the public interest and is approvable, subject to the recommended conditions of consent.
The Department said that Daracon had responded to feedback from the Department and other government agencies as well as the community and made substantial changes to reduce impacts while maintaining the viability of the project.
The Department also considers that the Project would result in significant economic benefits to the region and NSW and is therefore justified from an economic efficiency perspective.
The IPC is holding their Public Meeting on 7 November at the Tocal Agricultural Centre from 10am to hear directly from community members.