Lithgow City Council is expected to debate the merits of a proposal to create a new asbestos dump on the site of the former Wallerawang Power Station site at its regular meeting on Monday night, March 25.
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The dump would be created specifically to deal with the debris from EnergyAustralia's proposed demolition of much of the remaining assets on the site.
At the February council meeting, councillors voted to defer a decision on whether to make a submission to the Joint Regional Planning Panel until more information was available.
According to a report from the general manager Graeme Faulkner's office to the March 25 meeting, the process of demolition would create approximately 7000 cubic metres of asbestos waste.
"There are two existing asbestos disposal areas adjacent the Wallerawang Ash Repository, one closed in 1989 and the current disposal area is nearing capacity," the report stated.
The proposed solution to the asbestos disposal would be a 1.8 hectare "asbestos disposal area" made up of six parallel 250m long trenches.
Once the demolition was complete, a capping layer would be added to the trenches.
Council is expected to decide at its March 25 meeting whether it would make a submission on the proposal to the Joint Regional Planning Panel, which is the body responsible for determining whether the project can go ahead.
At the February meeting, Councillor Wayne McAndrew expressed concern about the scale of the asbestos dump, which indicated that it would be large enough to contain all the asbestos from the site.
Considering Lithgow City Council is in the process of considering a development application from EnergyAustralia for the demolition of the site, he said this application appeared to be putting the "cart before the horse".
Cr Steven Ring said, aside from the issue of the proposed demolition it was important, if the site was repurposed, that there was a plan in place to deal with the asbestos waste from the site.
"If the site is repurposed at some stage, and that's not relevant really to this issue, then they will want that asbestos removed, because I can tell you from personal experience in adapting heritage buildings that had asbestos in them, tradesmen will not drill through it," he said.
"It's a serious concern."
Kirsty Horton
A journalist with 15 years of experience, Kirsty Horton has been the editor of the Lithgow Mercury newspaper and a journalist for mastheads including the Great Lakes Advocate, Nambucca Guardian News and Moree Champion. She is now a member of ACM's features and special publications team.
A journalist with 15 years of experience, Kirsty Horton has been the editor of the Lithgow Mercury newspaper and a journalist for mastheads including the Great Lakes Advocate, Nambucca Guardian News and Moree Champion. She is now a member of ACM's features and special publications team.
