A council in south-west Victoria has finally received a cache of documents about the potential impact of a proposal to shift contaminated soil from the West Gate Tunnel project to Bacchus Marsh.
Moorabool Shire Council has received 18 technical documents from the State Government that formed part of an application by Maddingley Brown Coal.
The company has submitted a planning scheme amendment to enable its Bacchus Marsh site to receive spoil from the tunnel project.
Earlier this month, it applied to Planning Minister Richard Wynne for a permit that would allow it to store, categorise and dispose of contaminated soil.
Moorabool Shire Mayor David Edwards said the council had been given three weeks to go through the technical documents and form a response for the Minister.
"It's a significant amount of work, so council will be working feverishly to try and form an opinion in that short period of time," he said.
"Without being a specialist, I imagine [the documents] will talk about the levels of PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances], how [it will] be managed, stored, how [it will] be transported — all the relevant aspects that need to be addressed."
Still seeking information
Cr Edwards said the council was yet to receive other important information.
"There's traffic reports, environmental reports … albeit I believe we are missing a few of the ones that we really want to see, like the risk assessment on the environment," he said.
The Mayor said there would be thousands of pages for council staff to inspect.
"For some of the documents we will have the technical expertise within our council — things like the traffic report we'd be able to review, we have that sort of expertise," he said.
"But some, like the environmental management, we'll have to get in consultants or additional people to peer review those documents, to make sure they make sense and the community remains safe."
Cr Edwards said normally the council would have been working with the applicant for months prior to receiving formal applications.
"We've had no previous work done in regards to the actual technical reports."
Calls for details since Christmas
"We've been asking since prior to Christmas if [the applicants] could inform council of these documents, it would have made it a lot easier," he said.
"Now we're forced into a position to rush through and sort of do our best to get as much information out there as we can."
The council said it would like to be able to release the documents publicly, however it was still working through the legalities as some of the documents are marked confidential.
A State Government spokesperson said the council would be invited to review and comment on the Maddingley application.
"Following council's feedback, the Minister will consider all relevant matters under the planning laws," they said.
"No decisions have been made."
