Five Toodyay residents continue protest of Opal Vale landfill.
A group of five residents in Toodyay, a small town 85 kilometres east of Perth, are looking to take their protest against a landfill site to the state’s highest court, according to ABC reports released yesterday.
In August, Perth-based company Opal Vale was granted approval to construct a landfill near Toodyay. However five residents are arguing the decision, saying that is should be overturned because the Department of Environment Regulation (DER) did not follow proper procedure.
The resident’s primary concerns had to do with contamination of underground and surface water sources, according to the ABC report.
A report by Stass Environmental in December 2014 found that “The groundwater conditions at the site are favorable for the development of a waste management facility.”
The report further noted, however, that: “Modelling of the most sensitive receptor pathways shows that it will take in excess of 90 years for water leaking from the landfill to reach the most sensitive and closest receptor – the Jimperding Brook. The Bioscreen model suggests that it may take as little as 17 years for a contaminant ‘breakthrough’ to be observed at the Brook (first recorded concentration) if a preferential groundwater flow path exists in a direct line between the landfill and Jimperding Brook.”
The matter is due in the Supreme Court in Perth on 8 August.