Martins Creek Quarry Project

Please see attached file

I am a resident of Port Stephens local government area. I strongly object to the proposed development.

The EIS as it is presented;

- fails to address the condition and suitability of Port Stephens local government roads to carry the proposed 40 loaded trucks per hour

- fails to address the impact to amenity of Port Stephens, Dungog Shire and Maitland shire residents who are already being impacted by Daracon's alleged unlawful extraction

- currently incorporates un authorized rates of extraction and haulage impacts within the background environmental data

I visit Paterson and it's surrounds to take in and enjoy the amenity of the local area with my family. Authorizing 430 truck movements per day and 80 truck movements per hour will have a catastrophic impact in regards to visitation, natural beauty and the pleasantness of attending the area. Say for example John Tucker Park in Paterson, who would want to visit a park when it is delineated and impacted upon by a convoy of quarry trucks?!

I request the Department of Planning require any new approval to be by rail this will preserve jobs and maintain use of the rock without impacting the effected communities in the area. I understand there are multiple rail off loading points within Sydney where this material could be used. A quarry expansion of this size and resource should surely under pin the investment of rail off takes and rolling stock.

I appose the Martins Creek quarry expansion.
1. NOISE POLLUTION- Truck movements now start at 5.30am at my section of Paterson Rd Bolwarra. With some trucks, a banging noise sounds where the road surfaces change, this noise is troublesome.
The truck noises continue all day with the noticeable increase of traffic.
2. INCREASED VOLUME WITH PROPOSED EXPANSION OF QUARRY- Reports indicate that the production volume is to be 1.5.million tonnes. This volume exceeds some coal mines in the Hunter Valley. The coal mines use rail. (Large movements of coal transport through Maitland ceased a long time ago)
Already noticeable damage to our roads exists- increased volume in traffic would compound this problem resulting in a further financial burden to our local council.TT

see uploaded pdf file

I appose the Martins Creek quarry expansion.
1. NOISE POLLUTION- Truck movements now start at 5.30am at my section of Paterson Rd Bolwarra. With some trucks, a banging noise sounds where the road surfaces change, this noise is troublesome.
The truck noises continue all day with the noticeable increase of traffic.
2. INCREASED VOLUME WITH PROPOSED EXPANSION OF QUARRY- Reports indicate that the production volume is to be 1.5.million tonnes. This volume exceeds some coal mines in the Hunter Valley. The coal mines use rail. (Large movements of coal transport through Maitland ceased a long time ago)
Already noticeable damage to our roads exists- increased volume in traffic would compound this problem resulting in a further financial burden to our local council.TT

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refer attached

refer attached

I strongly disagree with Daracon's plans to expand Martins Creek Quarry. The reasons why are as follows:
- greatly increased traffic activity - this will directly and indirectly affect multiple townships with noise disturbances, road damages and increased risk of endangering the safety of pedestrians/bicycle riders.
- noise pollution - increased activity will result in increased noise produced by the quarry. I grew up living 10 minutes away from the quarry and observed the noise produced from quarry activities and the very regular rumble of the trucks along the road.
- road damage - the current truck activity greatly affects the condition of the road in the Martins Creek/Paterson areas. There have always been pot holes present and several times the roads have been resurfaced only to require re-surfacing months later.
- personal damages - multiple times I have had to repair windscreens after quarry truck throw rocks up and cause damage. Further more the suspension in my car has also required replacing, this was attributed to the constant presence of pot holes on the road around Paterson on which I drive.
- Paterson is a historic township - the ongoing traffic already has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the town. With even more traffic planned, this town will only be affected more.

I strongly disagree with Daracon's plans to expand Martins Creek Quarry. The reasons why are as follows:
- greatly increased traffic activity - this will directly and indirectly affect multiple townships with noise disturbances, road damages and increased risk of endangering the safety of pedestrians/bicycle riders.
- noise pollution - increased activity will result in increased noise produced by the quarry. I grew up living 10 minutes away from the quarry and observed the noise produced from quarry activities and the very regular rumble of the trucks along the road.
- road damage - the current truck activity greatly affects the condition of the road in the Martins Creek/Paterson areas. There have always been pot holes present and several times the roads have been resurfaced only to require re-surfacing months later.
- personal damages - multiple times I have had to repair windscreens after quarry truck throw rocks up and cause damage. Further more the suspension in my car has also required replacing, this was attributed to the constant presence of pot holes on the road around Paterson on which I drive.
- Paterson is a historic township - the ongoing traffic already has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the town. With even more traffic planned, this town will only be affected more.

I strongly disagree with Daracon's plans to expand Martins Creek Quarry. The reasons why are as follows:
- greatly increased traffic activity - this will directly and indirectly affect multiple townships with noise disturbances, road damages and increased risk of endangering the safety of pedestrians/bicycle riders.
- noise pollution - increased activity will result in increased noise produced by the quarry. I have observed the frequent noise produced from quarry activities/explosions and the very regular rumble of the trucks along the road.
- road damage - the current truck activity greatly affects the condition of the road in the Martins Creek/Paterson areas. There have always been pot holes present and several times the roads have been resurfaced only to require re-surfacing months later.
- personal damages - multiple times my wife has had to repair windscreens after quarry truck throw rocks up and cause damage. Further more the suspension in her car has also required replacing, this was attributed to the constant presence of pot holes on the road around Paterson on which she drive.
- Paterson is a historic township - the ongoing traffic already has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the town. With even more traffic planned, this town will only be affected more.

I am only a recent resident of Paterson. Whilst I was aware of the quarry in Martins Creek I had no idea of the amount of heavy vehicle traffic that goes through the town of Paterson on a daily basis. The noise, the damage to roads, and the impact on the community is already substantial. This area is rural, this is why I moved here. I hear the blasting on a regular basis. I am constantly navigating trucks on our narrow streets. The community cannot withstand any increase, and certainly not what has been proposed. This will destroy our town. Our environment does not need any further degradation. Enough is enough.

I strongly disagree with Daracon's plans to expand Martins Creek Quarry. The reasons why are as follows:
- greatly increased traffic activity - this will directly and indirectly affect multiple townships with noise disturbances, road damages and increased risk of endangering the safety of pedestrians/bicycle riders.
- noise pollution - increased activity will result in increased noise produced by the quarry. I grew up living 10 minutes away from the quarry and observed the noise produced from quarry activities and the very regular rumble of the trucks along the road.
- road damage - the current truck activity greatly affects the condition of the road in the Martins Creek/Paterson areas. There have always been pot holes present and several times the roads have been resurfaced only to require re-surfacing months later.
- personal damages - multiple times I have had family need repair windscreens after quarry truck throw rocks up and cause damage.
- Paterson is a historic township - the ongoing traffic already has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the town. With even more traffic planned, this town will only be affected more.

I lodge my objection and wish to make a supplementary submission in a timely manner in due course

I strongly disagree with Daracon's plans to expand Martins Creek Quarry. The reasons why are as follows:
- greatly increased traffic activity - this will directly and indirectly affect multiple townships with noise disturbances, road damages and increased risk of endangering the safety of pedestrians/bicycle riders.
- noise pollution - increased activity will result in increased noise produced by the quarry. I grew up living 10 minutes away from the quarry and observed the noise produced from quarry activities and the very regular rumble of the trucks along the road.
- road damage - the current truck activity greatly affects the condition of the road in the Martins Creek/Paterson areas. There have always been pot holes present and several times the roads have been resurfaced only to require re-surfacing months later.
- personal damages - multiple times I have had family need repair windscreens after quarry truck throw rocks up and cause damage.
- Paterson is a historic township - the ongoing traffic already has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the town. With even more traffic planned, this town will only be affected more.

I oppose the proposed Martins Creek quarry extension on a number of issues.
1) Increased traffic through Paterson resulting in loss of amenity for Paterson residents and deterioration of local roads.
2) This application should not proceed while there is still an outstanding case to be heard in the Land and Environment court between Dungog Council and Daracon. I believe Daracon is trying to circumvent the local council's original conditions (which it is claimed are being exceeded) by lodging this application. If this application is granted Daracon can legally claim that the company only has to abide by the newer conditions.
3) Local councils should have the final say on applications affecting local matters. Dungog council applied many reasonable conditions on Daracon before granting the last expansion DA, and these are the conditions that I believe most Paterson residents can accept - judging by the response at last month's community meeting.
4) I believe Daracon should be made to pay a levy - maybe $0.50 per tonne per kilometer through whatever local council area they travel. This to be paid to the council for road restoration, and to make the cost of moving any increased production by road more expensive than rail. I believe if the cost of transport by rail were cheaper than by road, then "more imaginative" solutions would be found to move product out of the quarry, and those solutions would not need to involve putting up barriers across the main street of Paterson.

I would like to follow up this objection with a more comprehensive statement, and will provide one soon. Thank you for your time.

attached

I lodge an objection and wish to make additional submission next week

See attached submission

Martins Creek Quarry Expansion - Application No SSD - 16 - 6612
21 November 2016
Director Resource Assessments,
Planning Services
Department of Planning and Environment
GPO Box 39
Sydney NSW 2001
Dear Sir,
I make this submission in opposition to the above mentioned application and question the validity of the submission.
Throughout the submission Buttai Gravel (Daracon) states that this submission is to "consolidate" and or "regularisation" of existing quarrying operations. Although the DoP (Howard Reed) has said that this is poor wording or a mistake it is what Daracon has repeatedly requested (no less than five times for consolidation and eight times for regularisation) with this submission. On pages 10 and 30 of the EIS clearly states that Daracon have chosen Option 3: Regularisation of existing operations and expand future operations.
On page 37 of the EIS 5. Project Description Daracon directly requests consent for
* the regularising the operations at the existing Martins Creek quarry
* Expanding the quarry to areas previously identified as resource rich areas
Daracon has also made reference to this application to the courts.
There can be no doubt as to this request for the DoP to adjudicate on the current consent that is currently before the courts. It should not be the DoP's position to interpret what has been requested rather assess the submission as it is written.
Based on Daracons insistence that this application is to "consolidate" and or "regularisation" of existing quarry operations and that these existing operations are before the courts, in dispute, the application is fundamentally floored in its assumptions and requests. Daracon is blatantly abusing both the DoP approval system and the judicial system.
I hear by formally request that the Application No SSD -16- 662 be declined until Daracon can legally prove that the current conditions referred to in the application are true and correct.
90% of the issues could be avoided if Daracon was to set up an offsite processing facility adjacent to major road infrastructure. This would allow them to extract in a controlled measure throughout the year only needing to haul between 7.00am and 500pm Monday to Friday and when they won a large contract they would have the material stockpiled ready for use. This would prevent the follow:
* Need for the Cowboy contractors who they admit they cannot control
* They would only need to run along one route removing the need to travel along Butterwick Road reducing the impact with the Brandy Hill Quarry and removing the danger of the Tocal Road and Paterson intersection completely overlooked in their traffic survey even though it is the most dangerous intersection on their current transport routs.
* To travel through residential areas at 5.00 to 5.30am 6 days a week
* Traveling through closed roads with closed road signs during times of flood. (I have lived here for six years and we've had 5 floods)
* Remove bin sales that they have not allowed for in their truck count and have no control over.
* They could blast more often only more controlled and smaller blasts to alleviate the dust and house damage.
To reduce impacts even more Daracon to abide by their current consent and run 70% of product by rail. It should be noted that Daracon has two quarries with rail sidings.