HAWKESBURY Council has approved a waste water treatment system for the Tinder Creek Duck Farm at Tennyson.
At the August 8 Council meeting, councillors voted 10-2 to approve the onsite water treatment system at 421 Tennyson Road, Tennyson.
The system is designed to remove waste water from the facility, which will process 750 tonnes of duck meat per year.
Greens councillor Danielle Wheeler, who along with Cr John Ross, voted to refuse, said she was worried sewerage from the site would find its way into the nearby Howe’s Creek.
The site is on a slope, which according to the Council report ranges in gradient of six to 30 per cent.
Effluent ponds to capture the waste water and an irrigation system will be located on the slope and lined with plastic to prevent waste water seeping into the ground.
Cr Wheeler said she was worried the steep slope would see the water bypass the ponds and find its way into Howe’s Creek.
However, Council staff were satisfied that a 100-metre buffer zone between the ponds and the creek was enough to ensure sewerage would not end up in the creek.
Cr Ross also asked whether there were future plans to expand the processing plant.
Council’s report notes the effluent ponds are 57 per cent larger than what is required for the size of operations.
Tinder Creek duck Farm’s Greg Jones told the chamber the business had no plans to expand its operations in the future.
“Our plan is not for future expansion but there is room if we wanted to,” he said.
“You could extend a lot if you wanted to but that is not our plan.”
In the Council business paper, Mr Jones also provided a ‘statement of facts’, which asserted a larger than necessary waste water processing treatment was not a ‘trojan horse’ to later expand operations.
Council director of city planning Matthew Owens also hosed down any suggestions of future expansion.
“The DA limits the processing capacity. If they exceed that there will be compliance action taken against them,” he said.
The Council report also noted compliance action was being taken against the business on a separate matter.
Mr Owens told The Gazette the compliance action was about how much fill had been taken to the property and where the fill was placed.
