A proposal to fill a quarry near Lithgow will be opposed by Hawkesbury City Council over traffic and environmental concerns.
The Bell Quarry Rehabilitation plan proposes sourcing 2.2 million tonnes of fill from infrastructure projects for the disused quarry at Clarence in the Lithgow local government area.
In a notice of motion to the March 12 council meeting, Cr John Ross stated most of the fill would be trucked up Bells Line of Road and the Great Western Highway.
Truck movement figures given in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project varied from 34 to 74 per day, six days a week for 15 years, he stated.
"The idea that the west of Sydney or even further afield away from the city is to be the dumping ground of refuse or building waste ... is quite repugnant, and if that's what the government has in mind for this area they've got a hell of a fight on their hands in future," he told the meeting.
"The impact on Bells Line of Road is also significant because that will in part take it through residential areas and we wouldn't have any control over the time of the movement of this material, so there will be attendant noise and possible material falling off trucks and suchlike.
"The people up in Kurrajong would certainly be left with a considerable noise problem as vehicles try to climb Bellbird Hill ... It's really a very unsatisfactory state of affairs that this should have come to this position."
Cr Danielle Wheeler said Blue Mountains and Lithgow councils were opposed to the proposal as was the Blue Mountains Rural Fire Service, which wished to retain the water at the quarry site for use during bushfire emergencies.
"Users of the Wollomgambi River are also opposed due to the potential for leachate into the water, the possibility of contaminated fill," she said. "We'll see the impacts of water running from this quarry, from the Wollongambi and into the Colo. Hawkesbury residents rely on the Colo River for their water supply. We also rely on it for tourism and recreation.
"This isn't about rehabilitation. This site has rehabilitated. This will effectively be used as a tip site. It may not be what we consider to be a tip like our council waste depot, but it is a tip site nonetheless."
Cr Nathan Zamprogno said the council should "at most" confine its comments to traffic impacts of people on Bells Line of Road, while Cr Sarah Richards said her greatest concern for the Hawkesbury Local Government Area was the "unquantified … truck movements that will be in our LGA.
"Our Bells Line of Road probably can't tolerate an increase to that capacity of truck movements," she said. "Not only is that damage to the road it's about safety to the other road users."
