A proposal to re-open the Spencers Brook Quarry has appeared before the Shire of Northam Council on Wednesday 13 June.
The matter saw more than 30 members of the public attend the forum meeting to participate in the public question and statement time and present a petition to council.
The petition had more than 140 signatures from concerned residents, calling for council to vote against re-opening the site.
The proposal relates to the existing hard-rock granite quarry located at Lot 93 Spencers Brook Road in Muluckine.
The quarry was previously under the management of Yarnell Pty Ltd who’s contract has since expired, leading to a new application for development approval and an extractive industry license being made by Italia Stone Pty Ltd.
Italia Stone have outlined the desire to rehabilitate the quarry following the completion of extracting granite.
They have proposed to conduct campaign driven drilling, blasting, crushing and extraction of existing granite rock and transport it to project sites via Spencers Brook Road to Great Eastern Highway.
The proposal consists of 600,000 tonnes on the site over a period of seven years, followed by rehabilitation works for an additional three years to return the quarry to grazing/pasture on behalf of the owner.
Blasting is only being proposed to balance existing granite faces.
Thirty-three public submissions and one submission from a State Government Department were given to Council prior to the forum meeting.
The most common concerns held in the written submissions were the current condition of Spencers Brook Road, noise created by the re-opening of the quarry, safety for road users, farmers, cyclist, riders and children uses the school buses in the area.
Other issues raised were change to lifestyle, loss of property values, environmental impacts, loss to toursim, an increase in traffic, dust management, amenity and water management.
Reporting officer Chadd Hunt said the main issue for Council is to give consideration and due regard to the management of noise and dust issues which may impact on landowners.
He said the applicant has appointed an independent acoustic engineer to prepare a report of on-site noise generation on residences in proximity to the works.
“The applicant proposes to utilise dust suppression where applicable, and the dust management will be a Condition of approval,” Mr Hunt said.
“A major concern raised in public submissions has related to the proposed number of heavy vehicle movements by the extractive industry, and the impact that the additional movements will have on road safety, condition and amenity along the proposed haul route of Spencers Brook Road.
“While the applicant has submitted their proposal with proposed campaign driven extraction and 40 outgoing movements per day during peak operation, further consultation has indicated that the threshold for operations necessitates 10 outgoing movements per day over the lifetime of the campaign.
“On this basis, the total number of days that carting would be required equates to approximately 180 days per year over the 7 year operational period.
“If assumed carting is undertaken 6 days per week, this averages approximately 30 weeks per year.”
Under the current proposal hours of operation for the site will be limited to between 7am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday, with no blasting to occur on Saturdays.
When addressing safety concerns Shire reports said Spencers Brook Road is approved as a RAV3 route, meaning that Resticted Access Vehicles including pocket road train, B-Double, and other RAVs with a maximum length of either 25.0 m or 27.5 m can use the road and have to follow Road Traffic Code 2000.
The Shire of Northam said safety, human behaviour with respect to overtaking or those entering and exiting roads is not a valid planning consideration, and is not grounds to refuse the approval.
Officers also said farmers who need to move stock across Spencers Brook Road to adjacent properties need to make sure they are following the Road Traffic Code 2000 which says;
A person shall not drive stock along or across a road unless the person –
a. takes all reasonable precautions to warn approaching traffic of the presence of the shock; and
b) arranges the driving of the stock at such times, and in such numbers and establishes such control of the stock on the road, as is likely to prevent it causing unreasonable delay to the passage of other traffic
Members of the public gallery pitched the idea of an alternative route for trucks travelling from the quarry out onto Great Eastern Highway.
It was suggested that trucks instead use Northam-York Road to turn onto Yilgarn Avenue to get to Great Eastern Highway.
The re-route suggestion was commented upon by Councilors Michael Ryan, John Proud and Attila Mencshelyi who asked if Italia Stone could be persuaded to look at an alternative route.
The recommendation for the Shire of Northam Council to vote on outlines that heavy vehicle movements are to be restricted during school bus operating hours between 7am-8.30am and 3pm-4.30pm.
It also says Italia Stone has to establish an initial road maintenance contribution of more than $42,000 to be used to maintain the road condition and must provide a rehabilitation amount for $75,000 as a bond.
If Council votes in favour of the proposal Italia Stone must upgrade the entry and exit crossover points and the section of road at the Quarry and Spencers Brook Road interface to asphalt.
New road signs along the transport route in consultation with the local government, warning other road users of trucks entering and using the public road system will be installed at Italia Stones expense.
The Shire of Northam will receive 50 cents per tonne of granite transported to be used to maintain Spencers Brook Road.
To see the full list of conditions and the recommendation given to Council please see here.
Shire of Northam chief executive officer Jason Whiteaker said Council can only add conditions if they are planning reasons and considerations.
The Shire of Northam Council will vote on the recommendation at the next council meeting on Wednesday June 20.
