PLANS to expand White Box Rise towards a former land-fill have hit a roadblock, with the Wodonga Council enforcing a buffer zone.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The developer, Abacus Wodonga Land Fund, wants to amend its approved plans, which require a 200-metre separation from the former tip site.
The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended a 200-metre separation between homes and land-fill, following the discovery of a methane gas leak at an estate at Cranbourne in 2008.
The developer wants to reduce the buffer to 20 metres, but the councillors knocked back the request on Monday.
According to council documents, the tip site, south-east of White Box Rise, was used from 1962 to 1975 to dispose of office waste, chemicals, asbestos, oil and paint containers, and was covered in soil in 1991.
The council won’t make a decision on reducing the buffer zone until the EPA has approved a rehabilitation plan and those works have been completed, and management measures are put in place.
Wodonga mayor Rodney Wangman yesterday said the council was following best-practice measures as recommended by the EPA.
“We are required not only to meet the expectation on compliance and legislation applicable to council now and into the future, but also the requirements of the respective state authorities like the EPA,” he said.
The council would consider any proposal to reduce the buffer, once the developer and EPA had reached agreement and implemented the plan, Cr Wangman said.
Any new buffer figure would not necessarily be 20 metres.
“The tip has been shut for a long time, but the EPA and developer need assurance of what may be in the ground and any odour issues that may be of concern,” he said.
“The EPA needs assurance that whatever’s in the ground is not the cause of any concern.
“None of us know exactly what was put in there, only that it was used for refuge from the army camps.”
The developer did not return calls.