Lithgow City Council will not take a position on a development application to create a new asbestos dump on the former Wallerawang Power Station site until it has talked to nearby residents.
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The application will not be decided at the local level, rather it will be heard by the Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP).
At council's meeting on March 25, Cr Steven Ring urged any application be made based on a "fair understanding" of the proposal.
"I've looked at the environmental impact statement at 692 pages, it does give five options for the disposal of asbestos, one of those being that asbestos being disposed of at Lithgow waste facility, the Bathurst waste facility or Sydney," he said.
"It does give four options for disposal on their property.
"I think we need to be careful in any submission we put in - it carries weight... There are already two existing asbestos facilities on that site. I think they go back to the 80's, one was closed, one's nearing the end of its life."
Cr Joe Smith said he believed there would be significant interest and concern within the community.
Council voted to defer making a decision on whether to make a submission to the JRPP until nearby residents, particularly those at Lidsdale, had been consulted.
"It's not in my backyard so I would believe that the council should go out and meet with the residents whose backyard it's going to be in, because to be consistent, that's the way it's been for Bells Quarry and with other DAs that have come before us," Lithgow mayor Cr Ray Thompson said.
Lithgow City Council recently resolved to oppose a proposal to rehabilitate Bell Quarry using clean fill sourced from Sydney and its surrounds.
That development application will also be decided by the JRPP.
Council's director of economic development and environment Andrew Muir said a small number of submissions had been received on the Wallerawang proposal as of Monday's meeting.
The proposed asbestos 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 meeting, at which a decision on whether to make a submission was also delayed, councillors said they were concerned about the scale of the site proposed in the application.