The Mangrove Mountain Landfill as locals know it, a Waste disposal facility is now a cause for concern to the locals as they are worried the development may impact the local water supply that feeds the entire region.
In 2014, the Land Environment Court gave the landfill operator, Verde Tera, the approval to dump waste of 25 times the original approval size thereby expanding the landfill site. The landfill site sits within the water catchment on the NSW Central Coast.
Central Coast Council kicked off the legal action in 2019 in a bid to challenge the validity of the landfill operation which also involved the NSW EPA. In 2022, the court has now accepted the operator’s submission including that if the consent order in 2014 was not upheld, they would suffer financially, and the alternative remediation proposed by the council did not exist. However, the commissioner has warned against any risk of environmental contamination in the future.
Opponents such as the Community Environment Network (CEN) chairperson, Mr Gary Chestnut has expressed fears on the how the operation would affect the future of the region which has not been considered by the court. According to Mr Chestnut, the operator needs to get a new consent or modified court order on how to go forward especially, in the aspect of containing the large amount of waste. All parties have been given 33 days to consider the sentence or appeal.
