Peninsula Waste Management submitted a plan to transform the former Pioneer Quarries site at Arthurs Seat, Victoria into a landfill in 2013 but it was refused by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 following opposition from local residents.
Owner Hillview Quarries is now seeking to amend a condition on the site’s current permit so that it will not contain an expiry date, meaning work could be carried out until all resources are exhausted and the quarry has been rehabilitated.
The owner also requested a noise limit be lifted. Hillview stated this was to bring the site up to “modern” standards; many quarries have similarly updated their permits over the last few years to meet current regulations.
A letter from Hillview CEO Paul Nitas to the planning manager at Mornington Peninsula Shire Council stated that refusing permission for the quarry to continue to operate would “increase costs to the consumer in the future”.
“Continued supply of hard rock for housing and infrastructure development is best met from local supply,” Nitas commented, adding, “The transport costs associated with the haulage distance to alternative sites beyond the Mornington Peninsula is significant.”
The quarry has been in operation since the 1960s, although quarrying has not been conducted there in recent times, according to Hillview’s planning proposal. The owner also stated that there are stockpiles on the site that it had always intended to sell.
According to Hillview’s application, “The proposed amendment will not change the existing use or development of the land but ensure that access to the resource is maintained for the life of the resource”.
A prior planning permit expired in March 2014, although the application noted this date appeared to originate from 1998 when previous owner Pioneer requested an extension to the time limit on a permit that was due to run out 1999.
At the time, Pioneer estimated there was a further 15 years’ worth of resources, hence the 2014 time limit; however, when Hillview later purchased the site and surrounding land it maintained “significant” stone reserves were yet to be extracted.
More reading
Plans submitted for Peninsula landfill
Hillview landfill for Peninsula