A PROPOSAL to mine water from a Stanley orchard could be altered to satisfy residents’ concerns.
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That was the promise yesterday from orchard owner Tim Carey following a meeting about the issue in Stanley on Tuesday night.
“I can understand the concerns of some in the community and I hope I allayed some of them,” Mr Carey said.
“It’s feedback I’ve received before, but we’re going to sit down and have a look at it now and see if there is anything we can do.
“The concerns were mainly around truck movements, the route and the hours of operation.”
Stanley Rural Community Incorporated chairman Ed Tyrie said there was “a lot of robust discussion” about the plan at the meeting, attended by about 75 people.
The proposal involves an existing Goulburn Murray Water 50-megalitre surface licence having 19 megalitres allocated for groundwater use.
A water transfer station would be built next to the bore on the Cue Springs Road property under a proposal the applicant valued at $250,000.
The permit application — to be decided on by Indigo Council next month — proposes using tanker trucks to take water from the site each day between 7am and 7pm.
Mr Carey is the managing director of Black Mount Natural Springwater, though the Stanley proposal comes from a separate company set up specifically for the project.
Mr Tyrie said he was encouraging as many people as possible to submit their objections, or to sign a petition at the Stanley Post Office.
“Even though objections will close on Friday you can still write letters against the proposal because council won’t consider the application until March,” he said.
Cr Jenny O’Connor said the forum gave people the chance to have their opinions heard by the council without having to submit an objection.
“The reason we do this is because not everybody will put in a formal submission,” she said.
“Some groups are more organised than others and are better at doing this.”
Cr O’Connor said she could not comment specifically on the issue as it was before council.
Mr Carey had travelled from Ballarat to meet concerned residents.
“Most of those discussions have been quite fruitful and I expect to catch up with some more people over the next week or two,” he said.
Mr Carey said he had been asked to provide more detailed plans about the road into the property and a proposed shed on the site.