Goulburn's Common Street waste yard under scrutiny

The decision, in a closed session at last Tuesday’s meeting, followed the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) move last April to revoke the licence of the operator, Chris Eveston and his company, Common Street Recycling Pty Ltd.

It’s understood Mr Eveston has appealed this revocation and its order that the site at 2-12 Common Street be cleared by October 26, 2018.

The facility, which has attracted neighbour complaints about vermin, odour and wind-blown rubbish, came under EPA notice in early 2016 after people complained the waste pile had been building up. The dump occupies the former Gulson Brickworks yard but has no connection to the Gulson family.

In October, 2016 the EPA issued a $7500 penalty notice to the company for submitting a late volumetric surveys to them for the yard. It subsequently ordered that no further waste be accepted. It had been licensed to accept 5000 tonnes of recyclable material. The EPA also investigated compliance with licence conditions including odour and vermin control.

Now it wants to revoke the licence altogether. Its April notice claims that Mr Eveston is “no longer a fit and proper person” under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 to hold the licence. It further claims there is no authorised planning consent for the facility in place.

Mr Eveston declined to comment on the allegations, saying they were subject to legal proceedings. The Post understands he is appealing their substance and the timeline. He has previously rejected suggestions of vermin and odour.

The EPA said it was aware of community concern about the site.

Southern regional director Gary Whytcross said the Authority was also concerned about the facility’s environmental impact, hence the revocation notice to move the waste to “an appropriate landfill.”

“That notice has been appealed in the Land and Environment Court. The EPA is currently working through that process and is unable to speak on the details, given it is a court matter,” told The Post.

Mr Whytcross said the Authority had been working behind the scenes, had visited neighbours and the nearby aged care facility (Masonic Lodge) and formed the view that there was a “community impact that shouldn’t exist.”

The EPA has ordered that it be left as a clean site.

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In its April notice, the Authority alleged Mr Eveston was “not a fit and proper person” to operate the facility because he did not submit a volumetric return by the due date, July 31, 2016. It issued a ‘show cause notice’ on August 2 followed by a $7500 fine for the alleged late return on October 5, 2016. This, it claimed, contravened the licence.

But it also cited numerous alleged licence breaches at another waste facility at Girraween, operated by Citilight Environment Pty Ltd, of which Mr Eveston was sole director. These related to “non-compliance” with four clean-up notices issued between 2011 and 2014. It then issued penalty notices.

In November, 2014, Mr Eveston and Citilight were found guilty in Parramatta Local Court of operating the Girraween site “without lawful authority” and fined a total $15,000 and ordered to pay $10,000 in legal costs, the EPA stated in its licence revocation notice.

More clean-up and penalty notices followed, including one in December, 2016 that required the “continued progressive removal” of stockpiled waste at Girraween. In August, 2017 the EPA sent a ‘show cause’ notice to Mr Eveston in relation to “multiple alleged breaches” of a clean-up notice, claiming that he hadn’t been removing the required amounts.

Advice from Mr Eveston’s lawyers in October, 2017 stated that their client had limited financial resources, no assets or property at his disposal and no longer had access to waste removal equipment previously made available to him free of charge and could not  comply with the notice.

In January, 2018 it issued another penalty notice for failing to report that the Girraween waste had been taken to the ACT on May 31, 2017.

The Authority also referenced the Barina Quarry at Collector on land owned by Mr Eveston’s father, Brian Eveston. The latter advised the EPA that his son had been authorised to act on his behalf.

The EPA licence did not permit receipt, storage, processing or disposal of waste but the Authority said it subsequently discovered an estimated 1500 tonnes of material had been dumped there. It issued two clean-up notices in 2016 and 2017, ordering that no more waste be received and that it be removed. This was complied with by May, 2017.

The council has been working with the EPA regarding the Goulburn facility. The matter has been discussed in closed session several times due to legal confidentiality.

But the EPA’s licence revocation notice details the council’s view, based on legal advice, that “the ongoing use of the premises is unlawful.”

The council advised the Authority that development consent was granted in August, 2001 and was limited to 12 years.

“All site closure works shall be completed within this time period,” the consent stated.

Based on this, the consent lapsed on August 21, 2013.

Mr Eveston has previously claimed that a modification to the facility was granted in 2011/12. A 2012 EPA ‘notice of licence variation’ document also revealed that he was negotiating revised consent conditions with the council given that the use proposed at Common Street was ‘less intensive’ than that approved in 2001.

However the council argues that any subsequent granting of a construction certificate does not alter the 12-year approval limit.

Asked why the lapse of this consent had not been picked up earlier, a council spokesman said: “There has been a change in ownership since then, with whom discussions have been ongoing.”

Councillors decided in Tuesday’s closed session to offer a reduced price of $184 per tonne (a $40 discount) for the waste at its Sinclair Street landfill.  In addition, other items such as tyres, mattresses and fridges would be accepted at cost. These discounted rates are only available for nine months from the date of the decision.

General manager Warwick Bennett said the council and the EPA had been working through a legal process to rehabilitate the site.

“As part of that we were asked (by the EPA) to accept about 4500 tonnes of waste at our landfill because the only solution for the (Common Street) site is for clean waste to go in there,” he said.

“It has been a hotbed of complaints for some time...We see this as an important part of a community solution to clean up the site.”

Mr Bennett said the material, equating to two months of normal landfill, would place pressure on the council waste centre, but the focus was on achieving a good outcome.

But it was up to Mr Eveston to accept the offer.

Meantime, the council has encouraged the owner to investigate whether clean fill from Sydney’s west Connex project could be brought to the site, compacted and then developed upon.

Direct neighbour to the Common Street facility, retiree Kevin Peterson, doesn’t look excited about the apparent breakthrough on the site he and wife Noelline have long complained about.

‘I’ve given up on the whole lot of them,” he said.

Mr Peterson said he had sprayed round-up on the fence-line to keep out snakes from the rubbish pile. Rats had also come into his house and shed, a problem he said he has since arrested.

“It has cost us a lot of money on the devaluation of our house if ever we want to sell. One real estate agent told us we would never sell it but I don’t want to. Then there’s all the phone calls we’ve made to the council and EPA about it,” he said.

Mr Peterson said nobody from either organisation had contacted him about the revocation notice and he found out from a third party.

He told The Post that people had called into his house wanting to dump general waste next door.

“They thought it was a tip,” he said.

“Paper is blowing over the fence. It’s a real mess. If ever a fire got into (the pile) it would burn the house down.”

Both the EPA and Mr Peterson confirmed no more waste had been received at the site for at least the past six months.

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