Concerns if quarry goes ahead

We are very very concerned as we live in direct line from the proposed quarry and only 1.4 kms. We have no hills to protect our home and property from the fine dust that will be generated from blasting and traffic. We are an elderly couple and worried what these dust clouds will do to our breathing and lung functions. The fallout of dust/silica will firstly affect our drinking water quality as we rely on rain which is collected from our roof to our water tank. But also our livestock will be affected, our orchards, vegetable garden and vineyard. Our solar panels is another concern as they will be covered in dust therefore will not working efficiently. The dust will come into our home interior, pool and outdoor living areas. Enjoying outdoors will become a thing of the past. The blasting has been known to vibrate the house foundations and outdoor building footings and damage structures. Plus high electricity consumption at the quarry will affect the use and long time warranties on household appliances.

No Environmental assessment can assuage the significant impact of the proposed quarry both on the environment and the quiet enjoyment of tens of thousands of residents in the Googong/Royalla/Burra local region and within 10 kms of the proposed site: the hundreds of gravel trucks thundering along the Old Cooma Road, and the Monaro Hwy; the clearance of the native flora and concomitant fauna for the quarry in such a diverse habitat; the frequent westerly winds in this region blowing dust for kilometers; noise and vibrations from blasting and heavy vehicle movement (also impacting bird life); high potential of increases in electrical brownouts due to higher demand on grid (esp when dependent of water and sewage pumps as we are). I am particularly concerned about the impact on any reduction of the water table, and flow of the water courses, which is a further impacting surrounding flora and fauna. All of this is exacerbated by the more recent proposed expansion of the quarry's activities to onsite concrete production. I live within three kilometers east of the proposed quarry site, and I ask that you not approve the proposal, thereby giving priority to local flora and fauna, and to your community residents. We should not be subject to the placement of an industrial activity in our semirural environment and community.

Comments in attached document.

Impact on Monaro Highway will be huge with the reported 500 extra truck movements per day. This highway already gets congested in the snow season and this will make it far worse or even unusable at times. Additionally silica dust travelling on strong winds could severely impact the surrounding areas.

Hi

I have lived in this area over 20 years raising my children and am now helping raise my grandchildren. We are a multi-generational home and love our life in Royalla. We live 3.5km from Williamsdale Quarry and will be 7.5km from the proposed Monaro Rock Quarry. When the project was first brought to our attention it was for quarrying and processing of hard rock to meet the growing needs of the local construction industry in the Greater Capital region. I was dismayed to find that the project has been expanded to include importing of virgin material, recycling concrete waste material, a concrete batching plant and operation of an asphalt plant. This is a far bigger development than first proposed.
Our predominate winds are north westerlies which will direct the dust from the new quarry our way. I am very worried for the health implication from particulate matter and silica dust. Everything indicates that there is no safe level of silica dust exposure. While procedures can be put in place to mitigate the localised dust generated, it is what happens over an extended period at a short distance from the site, that I consider is impossible to manage. With all the best intentions and practices in place, I believe the developers and operators of this project will not be able to stop the dust from reaching us, leaving us exposed to future chronic and potentially life-threatening health conditions.
Electricity and water are another concern for me. Our domestic and drinking water is from our tanks. Everything used within our home is collected from our roof and stored in tanks. The potential increase in dust on our roof will cause the problems of sediment build up in the water tanks even with the use of first flush diverters (due to the small particle size). We use a bore to water our pet alpacas and for any water usage outside. In our time here we have seen the static bore level drop considerably. The high use of bore water in the operation of the proposed activities will further reduce the water level possible leading to bores drying up especially in summer. We have a grid connected solar system and the dust will reduce the amount of power we currently capture. The stability of our power supply is another concern. The high demand on the power supply from the operation of the proposed quarry will result in instabilities in the power supply causing damage to electrical equipment and pumps used in our homes.
The traffic arrangements is also a concern. I do a school run into Queanbeyan twice a day and have experienced a truck and dog cutting across in front of me at the intersect of Old Cooma Rd and Quarry Rd. This intersection and traffic arrangement is like that proposed for the access off Monaro Highway. The increase in the number of trucks travelling that section of the highway will potentially put other road users at an increased risk of being in an accident. I dread travelling into Canberra or Queanbeyan. Old Cooma Rd is not suited to large number of heavy vehicle movements and Monaro Highway will be an accident waiting to happen if this proposal is approved.
The clearing of the critically endangered Box-Gum Grassy Woodland at the site and the need to move Indigenous artifacts as part of the development are also concerning. I was surprised to realise that much needed alignment road works of parts of Old Cooma Rd could not be done due to the presence of endangered trees, but the proposed development of the quarry could clear 22.44 hectares of the endangered Box-Gum Woodland after the proposed purchase of offset credits. We all need to do our part in preserving our flora and fauna and historical artifacts for our future generations.
Lastly, I implore you to stop this project for the protection of the large number communities that live next and near this proposed industrial development in both NSW and ACT. There are too many people whose physical and mental wellbeing will be negatively affected and quality of lifestyle considerably reduced.
Thank you for your consideration.

I am a Royalla resident, and I would like to express my strong objection to the Monaro Rock Project. The reasons for my objection are as follows:

1. Air pollution, including deadly silica dust.
There will no doubt be increased levels of dust that the quarry will produce, including silica dust, which is harmful and deadly. The dust can cause silicosis; silica air pollution MUST be prevented altogether. Otherwise, there will be increased cases of silicosis! Will the government or the quarry operator be prepared to compensate people who will be affected by it?
The dust will also contaminate our drinking water which we harvest from the roof of the house. There is no other source of drinking water in Royalla. Silica air pollution MUST be prevented. Otherwise, will the government or the quarry operator be prepared to provide alternative drinking water solutions at their cost?

2. Increased heavy vehicle traffic on Monaro Highway and Old Cooma Road.
The quarry will result in a substantial heavy vehicle increase (I have been advised up to 500 a day!). This will significantly increase the risk of potentially fatal accidents, especially during ski seasons. My husband and I and two young adult children use these roads daily. I am very concerned about having to deal with this. It could also result in increased vehicle insurance premium!

3. Noise pollution.
We bought and build our family home in Royalla because of its rural setting, with fresh & clean air, and quite & peaceful neighbourhood. The quarry will create a lot of noise, from digging, detonation and heavy vehicle operation. Noise travels in this area. It will adversely impact the tranquil rural setting of Royalla and surrounds.

4. Decrease in real estate value.
There are a lot of beautiful homes in Royalla with gorgeous rural setting, fresh & clean air, and tranquillity. If the quarry is given the green light to proceed, the value of these houses will be adversely affected in that it will decrease significantly. It may even be impossible to sell our home in the future, because who wants to live next to a quarry? This would be highly unfair. The quarry MUST NOT be allowed to proceed!

The Monaro Rock project started with a ‘Community Consultation’ several years ago. We objected to the quarry then and I believe that with the support of the Queanbeyan Mayor and the Queanbeyan Palarang Council the project was shelved. But here we are again….this time, not only is there a quarry, but now we have an ‘industrial park’ consisting of the quarry, a concrete mixing plant, a concrete recycling plant and a hot asphalt facility. So I still object to the development but now the Monaro Rock project appears to go out of the way to be the most threatening health, lifestyle, traffic and economic development to profit someone not from this area.

I am gravely concerned about the health risks of silica dust, noise, vibrations, and odour which would be produced as part of the project. The proposed site is too close. In 2003 we purchased our block (zoned rural residential), designed and built our home and landscape. Prevailing NW winds in Royalla will see us among the first to be impacted by airborne breathable pollutants. Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica contamination is paramount. Open cut mining and its accompanying processing is a dusty process, when it is the primary method of extracting hard rock, in this case Rhyodacitic Ignimbrite with a Quartz content of 30-40%.

We are south east and in close proximity to the proposed project and apart from communications and power, we are reliant on harvested water and our bore. Of great concern is the use of water by the project. We share a bore (we are not permitted a dam) with two other neighbours. We have spent around $9,000 in updating and maintaining the bore. We rely on the water for horses, gardens and firefighting. Having no, or significantly reduced, access to the bore water would no doubt lead to unsustainable living conditions. These impacts can only produce a great risk of decreased house and property values. In other words, impacts on our economic future.
Over the 22 years the bore has been in service, it has proven to be marginal in terms of reliability with the supply being ‘overrun’ at times i.e. more water is required by us than can be provided by the source. This has generally occurred most often at times of most inconvenience when that source of water is needed the most by each of us.
Local advice from our bore and septic servicemen, who has significant knowledge of the situation in our district has publicly stated that the water table has dropped 17 metres in the time he has been working locally over 22 years. He has stated that this has resulted in a drop in yield of approximately 25% at his own bore site.
I am unconvinced that Monaro Rock will not have to draw groundwater at anything less than maximum capacity to extract every drop of the groundwater available in an attempt to contain airborne contaminants, severely affecting the water table. We have been led to believe that the project will not impact the rights of other landholders who depend on that same groundwater. I do not believe them.

At present, anecdotally, the Monaro Highway already reaches full carrying capacity especially with the large increase in traffic in the snow season. The addition of a significant number of heavy vehicles daily as proposed, could create a 'black spot" in road usage and potential accidents. The plan to use the Monaro Highway as the access point for fully loaded 19 metre B-Double trucks with an average gross weight of 57.5 tonnes, with the scope for higher capacity vehicles of up to 25 metre B-Double trucks utilised occasionally, turning out onto, or trying to gain momentum along the Monaro Highway whilst approaching the crest with limited visibility, under any conditions will prove lethal or cause serious injury to an unfortunate number of motorists travelling along the highway at 100 km/h, often exceeded by many. The highway attracts far too many careless drivers who notoriously don’t drive to conditions, are impatient and do not use their headlights to be seen in low visibility during any time of the year. This is greatly exacerbated during the snow season. The mitigation measures proposed by a Northbound merge lane does nothing to protect Southbound traffic confronted with trucks entering the highway from the access road, and it is highly doubtful if it will offer effective protection for Northbound motorists encountering trucks lumbering uphill attempting to merge with traffic jockeying to get past them at all costs whilst approaching the limited vision experienced at the crest of the hill especially in low visibility conditions. At 200 plus trucks daily, this additional, unacceptable hazard will prove disastrous for too many unfortunate victims. I cannot see how the ACT Government will allow the planned excursion to the Monaro Highway, leaving me further concerned over possible redirection of traffic onto Old Room Road.

Finally, the detrimental economic impact of the ‘proposed development’ is being felt already. My neighbour has been trying to sell their property and I was informed by one of the potential buyers that the proposed development has delayed/destroyed their planned purchase. The risk to family and a deteriorating value of their purchase was a deciding factor.

I absolutely object to this development

Please find attached submission from Royalla Landcare objecting to the Monaro Rock Quarry project.