Council to proceed with recycling at Bulls Hill

Gosford Council has revived a two-year-old proposal to build a recycling facility at the site of the Bulls Hill quarry.

The Council resolved to initiate the Local Environment Plan "gateway process" for a resource recovery facility in Woy Woy at its meeting of Tuesday, June 6,.

The site is 750m from Woy Woy Rd and was operated as a sandstone quarry until 1982.

A licence for the extractive industry continued until the mid-1990s.

The land used for the quarry extraction area is now stripped of significant vegetation and accommodates several siltation dams, ballast stockpiles and dumped cars.

The matter was previously considered by Council on December 7, 2010, and a planning proposal was forwarded to the Department of Planning, which subsequently requested clarification regarding a number of operational issues.

However this was withdrawn when the Council's City Services Directorate advised that until a Regional Waste Strategy has been investigated it was unwise to proceed.

Council was told that the Regional Waste Strategy progressed and it was considered that the development of a resource recovery facility located at Bulls Hill was critical to the future waste management options for Gosford.

It was determined that the site be considered in the Regional Waste Strategy and formation of the Joint Central Coast Waste Initiative.

Council was told that in 1983 Sinclair Knight and Partners produced a report entitled Gosford-Wyong Regional Waste Disposal Study which identified four additional sites in Gosford LGA available for future waste disposal.

Only the Bulls Hill Quarry site was considered suitable for a future solid waste disposal site.

The study found that the main advantages of the site included a good location clear of residential areas which was only 2.5km further from the centre of Woy Woy population area than the existing depot, economically controllable environmental impacts, a large volume over which to distribute development costs and a lack of other suitable alternatives.

A report from council staff stated that no action was taken at that point as the three existing landfill sites in Green Point, Kincumber and Woy Woy had sufficient capacity for immediate needs.

The report stated only the Woy Woy site now operated as landfill and recycling was a necessity.

The Woy Woy tip's life was limited to 2032, based on current usage, according to the report. "It is imperative that Council seeks to prolong its economic life by recycling all suitable material and thus reducing landfill.

"The planning proposal provides the capability to divert significant quantities of solid, construction and demolition waste and green waste from the existing landfill."

The site would include a soil processing facility, community re-use facility, an Alternate Waste Technology section for processing of 100,000 tonnes per annum of municipal solid waste, incorporating material from both Gosford and Wyong, and a composting facility for managing 60,000 tonnes per annum of source separated green waste and 15,000 tonnes per annum of biosolids.

Gosford Council Agenda ENV.48, 5 Jun 2012