Haerses Road Quarry MOD 3 - Production Increase

Please find attached the response from DRG.

Dixon Sands should not be granted approval as sought because the Wisemans Ferry Road cannot sustain the huge increase in trucks with dog trailers that will be using it on a daily basis. Cattai Bridge needs significant upgrading as it is too narrow and too low. The road is dangerous and the trucks speed without any regard for local residents. School children are standing on the side of the road with no designated bus shelters and these trucks do not slow down even when fully laden. There have been multiple roll overs and accidents just over the last several years involving quarry trucks. In terms of noise pollution the noise that is coming from the multiple quarry sites currently is ridiculous with it often starting at 4am in the morning. I can only see this increasing.

I object the the project as Wisemans Ferry Road and Old Northern Road have never been built to accommodate the current traffic nor will the roads cope with future traffic increase in this area due cluster development and developments as this.

We would like to outline the following concerns in relation to the above Application. For the reasons set out below we do not support the extension of the extraction area as per the above Application.

Since April 2019, we have had many discussions with Dixon Sands Pty Limited (Dixon Sands) in relation to their Application both in person and via correspondence. After now having had the opportunity to read the Application, further issues have now come to our attention many of which were not discussed during our meetings and correspondence with Dixon Sands. Many of our concerns are due to the close proximity of our property to the site in question.

Proposed Extension of Extraction Zone

Since April 2019 we have on at least 3 occasions met in person with Dixon Sands representatives, Mr David Dixon (Mr Dixon) and Ms Hunny Churcher (Ms Churcher) to discuss the Application and how it will affect the community and in particular our family and property. We note during these conversations it was communicated to us on numerous occasions by both Mr Dixon and Ms Churcher that the any works in relation to the Stage 5 Extraction Area would not occur for at least 30 years. On many occasions Mr Dixon even made a point of telling us “he wouldn’t be around to see it”. This was our understanding and confirmed in email correspondence with Mr Dixon and Ms Churcher dated 18 September 2019 (a copy of this email can be provided on request). In that email we confirmed Mr Dixon’s comments regarding the timing of the commencement of the extraction of Stage 5. This was later acknowledged by Ms Churcher’s reply email dated 20 September 2019, where Ms Churcher also asked Jackson Newberry-Dupe of Unwelt to make note of the contents in our email in their records. Upon review of the above Application, we note that the timeframes communicated to us in our meetings are considerably different to the “15-20 years” stated at point 7.9.3, page 95 of the Application. We feel the timeframes that were provided by Dixon Sands were misleading and there was never any indication that extraction of Stage 5 would commence earlier than in 30 years time. If we were advised of this timeframe during our correspondence with Dixon Sands discussions would have been very different.

As communicated with Dixon Sands, when we purchased our property in 2013 we were aware of the Dixon Sands existing approved DA and made the decision to buy our property fully understanding the current approved buffer zones and how this would affect our property and our lifestyle. Therefore, we cannot support the boundaries being brought closer to our property and it is our preference that they remain as previously approved.

We are very concerned that shortening buffer zones and moving bund walls and extraction areas closer to our house could result in effected views or increased noise.
We have advised Dixon Sands and it is included in their Application that we would like to maintain our current view’s from the front of our property and that we would favour any bund walls that are constructed to provide us with a natural view and only be erected when necessary.

We understand from Dixon comments that bund walls will be constructed in accordance to Council DCP and noise modelling but can a guarantee be provided that our family will not be affected by any noise from the site. We are concerned that bringing the extraction boundary closer to our property will affect our current peaceful ambience and result in unwanted noise from excavation machinery and associated works.

We also feel this extension of the buffer zone will adversely affect the value of our property in future. We were happy to purchase our property knowing the buffer was reasonable. We are concerned that the extension of the extraction boundary will affect our resale as it is sustainably closer and may not be favourable to any potential buyers.

Road Traffic Noise and Safety

Wisemans Ferry Road and Old Northern Road are already very busy at peak times of the day and the proposed increase in the number of trucks accessing the site raises concerns around the affect this will have on vehicle noise and road safety and how this will be managed to minimise any affect on the community. We put these concerns to Dixon Sands in writing and were advised that Dixon Sands would be liaising with the Road and Maritime Services as part of the development application requesting a reduction in the speed limit on the section of Wisemans Ferry Road surrounding the Dixon Sands site. We are unsure if this has been requested. We feel this review of the speed limit on this section of road is necessary as it is often very dangerous to pull out of and enter driveway. This same view has also been expressed to us by visitors to our property and one of the neighbouring properties on the opposite site of the road. Vehicles often come around the corner to the left of our driveway very quickly and pulling out of our driveway can be a safety risk. For this reason many of our conversations with Dixon Sands focused around driver safety and speed limits.

During our conversations with Dixon Sands we were advised of the agreement between local quarries to monitor driver behaviour and the advice to the local community to report dangerous driving. We note however, that unless you are able to provide a vehicle registration number which is not always possible it is very had then to report and trace. Therefore, any increased road traffic is not favourable and of concern.

Dust

We note that since April 2019, we received via email and post from Dixon updates and community information sheets regarding their proposed Application. We were very concerned after reading the Application, particularly in relation to Appendix 4 - Community Information Sheets and Q&A Flyer which attached a “Mine Dust and You” factsheet. We did not receive a copy of this factsheet even though we are recognised as stakeholders and asked on numerous occasions to receive communications and be kept up to date. This is very upsetting as on 5 May 2019 we had emailed Mr Dixon and Ms Churcher expressing all of our concerns including the issue of dust and any possible impacts on health yet no mention was made of any health risks in Ms Churcher’s reply email to us dated 6 May 2019. In our email we advised that we have young children and we spend much of our time outside on weekends and weekdays. At our meeting with Mr Dixon and Ms Churcher in mid April 2019 we also discussed issues around dust and what Dixon Sands could do to control levels of dust. At no time was the risk associated with dust mentioned to us. The fact sheet “Mine Dust and You” clearly states “infants, children and adolescents” as people who may be more susceptible to risk factors. This is of great concern to us as we have young children who will be living in close proximity to the extraction site and we are concerned about any increased risk to their health. Therefore we do not want boundaries moved closer to our home where our family will have an increased risk of dust exposure.

Noise and Stockpiling

Page 56, paragraph 7.4.3.2 notes the following “As the Quarry could operate during the night-time period (truck loading and transportation operations) the potential for sleep disturbance from maximum noise level events from a project during the night-time period needs to be considered”. The Application notes there being no change to operating hours of the quarry and that hours of operation would be restricted to 7am to 6pm. We do not support any night operations that will affect our family at night.

Mines in the Area

We note our property is already in close proximity to the Dixon Sand’s Heares Road site and two other PF Formation sites both on Wisemans Ferry Road. Noise can already be heard from both PF Formation sites depending on wind direction. Our property is already exposed to noise of all three quarries at close range and moving the boundary line of Stage 5 of the Heares Road site will only increase our exposure and ambience. We are concerned that this could make living on our property very uncomfortable and affect our lifestyle.

We would also like to add that at the end 2019 we were also made aware of a further application that has been earmarked with the Department for the land holding on north boundary of our property. This has deeply concerned us and has been a cause of great anxiety as it emphasises the issues we had raised with Dixon Sands about their Application. If other applications were to be approved and Dixon Sands boundary was to be moved closer this will leave us completely surrounded at close range.

We ask that all of the above issues are considered during your review process.

The project will significantly increase the truck traffic along Wisemans Ferry Road which will have an extremely negative effect on lifestyle (noise of the trucks) and will reduce the value of property. People have bought Maroota property to enjoy a quite country life style and this project will completely change that. If this project is approved the profit will be privatised (the mine owners increase increase their profit) and the cost socialised (the community pays the real cost through reduced property value and a negative impact on life style).

Comments attached.

Nil comments

DPIE Crown Lands has no comments for this proposal.

I am are writing to make a submission to object to the increase of truck movements, which seems excessive from 56 to 180 movement per day. This is 90 trucks in and 90 trucks out, this is a huge increase of trucks on Wisemans Ferry Road and Old Northern Road. There is already a number of quarries within a close vicinity of each other and the number of trucks on the road almost everyday is very high. Trucks start travelling along Wisemans Ferry Road by 5am, and often can be heard earlier. Due to recent subdivision changes within Hills Shire Council, there has been a very large increase of new houses to the area, which also has increased traffic. A major percentage of these new residences are young families. I have seen numerous truck accidents in the last nine years and it amazes me that someone hasn't been killed. There is also school buses travelling early in the morning and afternoon and trucks that are not sand trucks but other types of large vehicles servicing local businesses.

I am greatly concerned about this proposed increase of trucks on the road and feel that the number of movements per day should not be increased by such a high volume. To jump from 56 per day to 180 per day is too much. This increase alone accounts to a truck movement every 4 minutes (obviously not including trucks already on the road). This cannot be a safe number for local residents.

Refer to attached letter on behalf of The Hills Shire Council

EPA response attached.

I object to the Haerses Road Quarry -Modification#3 Application on the following grounds:
- A Modification Application to the original consent is not appropriate in this case as the proposal nearly doubles the size of the original extraction rate (250 to 495 thousand tpa), and trebles the number of overall truck movements from the quarry (56 to 180 per day). Therefore although the operations do not basically change from the original proposal, the IMPACTS for local traffic and roads will be very substantially increased.
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- The consultation process for the proposal has been inadequate, even though I live locally, I heard nothing about the proposal until I received a letter forwarded from my mothers former address in Mosman in January.
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- Currently the impacts of sand truck movements on local roads are huge.
- A trebling of the overall truck movements from the Haerses Rd Quarry has to be considered against the already high background current number of truck movements daily to/from all the Maroota quarries.
- I am led to believe that one operator has approval for up to 400 truck movements a day and they generally only use about 100 per day. If they wanting to use their full quota, the roads, at times, would be continuous trucks even more so than currently. So adding in another 130 per day with this proposal would not be good. (Could the total number of truck movements for the area be capped at the current level and traded?)
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- I wonder if the many people living on Wisemans Ferry Road or Old Northern Road all the way from Maroota to McGraths Hill and Pennant Hills respectively, daily impacted by the noise, dust, speed, danger and sheer volume of trucks, have been consulted about the proposal to increase truck movements?
- Increased truck movements affect everyone living on or near these roads. When Wisemans Ferry Road was cut by floods recently, the serenity of hearing no truck noise reminded us of why we chose to live here many years ago. Over the years we seen a substantial loss of amenity and ambience of the area from truck road noise. Any trip out from home usually involves confronting numerous potentially dangerous trucks. The local RTA roads –especially where there is no shoulder- are not up to double-bogey laden trucks travelling at speed creating real safety concerns e.g. when trucks must slow from 80k/h coming down to Cattai Bridge from Maroota.

Please note that I do not in any way object to any businesses making the best of there current situation, my own and many others major concerns are the factors outside the control of the proposed expansion and the effects thereof. The effect this kind of quarrying has already been extremely detrimental to the local community and area from McGraths Hill to Pitt Town to Cattai through to Maroota and on down the Old Northern Road. Other than the massive destruction of the area in question, the effect of notorious ‘tipper trucks’ hammering up and down Wisemans Ferry Road is already at a dangerous limit, the road is not designed for this type of vehicle, never mind them all having to go through the small area of Pitt Town. A 70% increase in this questionable vehicle type is absolute madness, please read that part of the proposal again, 180 more trucks per day, on a narrow very windy stretch of road which is not suitable for them. Anyone whom has encountered these trucks, especially in convoy heading towards you is intimidating at best, clearly dangerous at worst. This can only result in serious injuries, both animal and ultimately human (animal rights have already highlighted the massive kill area at Little Cattai Creek, they will not be impressed with this new inevitable cost).
We all know these truck are not the best on the road and have only one agenda, to get from A to B as quickly as possible, no matter what the cost. Yes, I have heard the argument that they are satellite tracked but that system is flawed as it only covers a fraction of the trucks and does not take into account traffic conditions or dangerous bends/road conditions (allegedly limited to 80klmph). Mixing this with the fact that there are many new developments taking place in this scenic area, which means more families, therefore more house hold traffic, which in turn means greater numbers of young, inexperienced drivers on this road. Facing a ‘tipper-truck’ coming the other way, too fast and normally not concentrating on the driving side of the job, is a hazard which should not be allowed, and is an unacceptable risk.
Demand for a product will override most things, but imagine if your family and kids were on the same road as 180 extra ‘tipper-truck’ drivers treating the road as a race track/cash cow. The quarries hours may be 6.00am to 6.00pm 6 days a week, but the trucks start tearing up the road at 4.30am.
Be rest assured, we as a community will be objecting to this proposal, as any concerned parent would.

Advice attached.

Attached.

Apologies that due to COVID workload we were unable to review and provide comment on this proposal.