Plans for Western Sydney incinerator set to be rejected

Nine News 10 April 2018 | Chris OKeefe  

Plans for an incinerator in Western Sydney are expected to be rejected, with the Department of Planning and Environment recommending it not go ahead. 

9NEWS has learned the Department has finalised its report into the proposed energy from waste facility at Eastern Creek.

The plans are expected to be sent to the independent Planning and Assessment Commission tomorrow, with a recommendation that it not be approved. 

The decision has been based on reports from NSW Health and the state's Environment Protection Authority. 

One of the sticking points is that The Next Generation, who lodged the proposal, could not satisfactorily guarantee that all of the material being fed into the facility was not dangerous.

They also could not provide a "reference point", a facility of a similar scale operating under a regulatory framework like that in NSW, to prove the proposal is safe.   

The PAC now has 42 days to independently assess the proposal, but senior sources say the Department of Planning's recommendation makes it difficult for them to approve it. 

The Next Generation originally proposed a facility that could could eventually burn up to 1.3 million tonnes of garbage each year turning it into power for 200,000 homes.

The site is at Honeycomb Road in Eastern Creek and is less than a kilometre from homes at Minchinbury. 

NSW Health and the EPA both opposed the original plan, so too around 1000 residents who lodged objections. 

The proposal was significantly scaled back, but it did not answer enough outstanding questions to satisfy the Department of Planning. 

"The government should never have let this get to this point in the first place, it was a bad idea from the beginning," Shadow Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed "concerns" about the proposal, and a Parliamentary Committee also recommended that the facility should not be built. 

https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/04/10/18/22/western-sydney-incinerator-plans-to-be-rejected

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