Owners of the former Hydro Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter have been accused of not properly consulting the group charged with being the community’s eyes and ears on site remediation plans.
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But Norsk Hydro has refuted the claim and said it had consulted the Community Reference Group before it applied to the state government for permission to permanently store 350,000 tonnes of contaminated waste in a specially engineered cell at the site.
CRG member Col Maybury said it appeared the company had decided on its preferred option to deal with the waste before the committee had been consulted.
“We went to the second meeting not knowing a decision had been made on this,” he said.
“The obvious thing is they [Norsk Hydro] are out to get as much money as they can for the sale of the land, which was gifted to them in the first place.
“They had a Power Point presentation and it was as if the decision had been made.”
Hydro Kurri Kurri managing director Richard Brown said company representatives had presented the remediation options to the CRG on August 21.
He said the group heard about a range of options to dispose of the contaminated waste.
“If you look at the presentation you will see that Hydro and Environ firstly looked at all of the waste and contaminated materials on site, then developed a range of assessment criteria to assist in developing preferred options,” Mr Brown said.
“It is important to note that Hydro is not the decision maker here, but puts forward a proposal that will need to be considered by the NSW Department of Planning, with considerable input from the Environmental Protection Authority.”
Mr Brown said the company was going beyond its requirements by consulting the CRG about remediation at this stage.
He said there would be a chance for full community consultation when an environmental impact statement had been prepared in the coming months.
The company has proposed an underground containment facility at the site, which it would permanently monitor.
There is about 80,000 tonnes of used smelting pot liners among the waste that need to be properly stored before the land can be developed for homes and businesses.
There is not expected to be any change at the site for about two years.