The Quirks Quarry, owned by Tweed Shire Council, has been excavated and could be used for about 30 years as landfill, according to council’s waste management co-ordinator Rod Dawson.
Dawson said the NSW Government granted the council an integrated planning approval in 2013 to build a road, excavate the Quirks Quarry for landfill and have a new quarry at West Valley also for landfill.
Dawson said the planning approval for converting the Quirks Quarry to landfill, which has restrictions of 75,000 tonnes of waste per year, would not be activated for at least the next three years, as there was capacity in the current landfill site at Stotts Creek for several years.
The Stotts Creek Resource Recovery Centre can accept general solid waste, construction and demolition waste, asbestos and a wide range of recyclable items.
The council is well set for a minimum of 50 years of landfill capacity, with the current site, the excavated Quirks Quarry and the unmined quarry at West Valley, Dawson said.
Transition to landfill site
Council is only permitted to commence landfilling operations at Quirks Quarry once the leachate management and collection system has been installed, quarrying operations have been substantially completed and the internal haul road has been constructed and sealed.
Quarrying operations have ended at Quirks Quarry and work on the haul road had already begun, according to Dawson.
“The unmined quarry had not been earmarked as yet and there are no plans at the moment even though geo-technical investigations have been conducted,” he said.
“The reserve has a lot of development potential given that the area is pot-marked with quarries that have produced good road base,” Dawson added.
Council is restricted to 200,000 tonnes of extractive materials per year from the potential West Valley quarry and must ensure negligible groundwater impacts.
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