Joondalup – it looks to me like we might have been left holding the donkey card in this game.
In my opinion, a responsible, functioning governing body would take in the latest findings of DWER and be moving with all haste to minimise the environmental and financial risks.
Surely, part of that would mean closing the tip as soon as possible?
But instead, to extend the donkey analogy, five of the MRC’s Regional Councils appear to be attempting to cover their collective asses.
Firstly, and in a gambit they have been working on for some time, five of the seven member councils have seen fit to interpret the rules of their constitution to mean they can exempt themselves from filling the tip and divert their waste to Waste-to-Energy.
Their argument for the two member councils who have not elected to divert, Joondalup and Wanneroo, is that they could have exempted themselves too!
For me, that argument underlines exactly the dysfunction of this council and why none of them should be granted an exemption.
Because the problem is, closing a tip isn’t as simple as shutting the gate and walking away.
It needs to reach a final profile before it can be capped and properly closed. In fact, MRC Chair Gary Mack has now said that Joondalup and Wanneroo will continue using Tamala Park because part of the landfill “still needs to be filled again to get the correct topography.”
So if diverting the other councils’ waste delays reaching that final profile, it will delay closure and capping too. And every additional period the landfill remains exposed to rainfall creates the potential for still more leachate to be generated.
Does this sound like responsible decision-making to you?
But the part that made me particularly concerned for the residents of Joondalup was the late amendment added to the motion. (link in comments)
Point 4 resolves that changes associated with the new waste and exemption arrangements will:
“automatically trigger a review of MRC’s financial contribution and cost-allocation arrangements to:
- protect participating WTE constituent municipalities from material or unfair financial disadvantage; and
- address the allocation of MRC corporate, Waste to Energy, environmental, Tamala Park closure and post-closure costs between participating and non-participating constituent municipalities.”
Unless I am reading this incorrectly, they have just created a mechanism through which the five councils diverting their waste could later argue that they should not bear the same share of Tamala Park’s environmental, closure and post-closure costs as the councils still stuck with using it.
Talk about having your cake and eating it, Councillors!
And when that argument eventually comes back to MRC, five of its seven member councils will be on one side of that financial divide, and only Joondalup and Wanneroo on the other.
Now, to be clear, the resolution does not say Joondalup and Wanneroo will be left with the bill.
But given that we’re already dealing with an existing leachate problem measured in billions of litres, I would very much like to know where the line is going to be drawn between the future costs of operating Tamala Park and the legacy environmental liabilities accumulated while all seven councils owned and used it.
Oh, and as if it couldn’t get any worse, they are also appealing the EPN and DWER’s refusal of the piggyback liner!
I’ll come back to that particular piece of the puzzle separately.
So, Joondalup (and Wanneroo) residents, if you don’t want to be left holding this gigantic pile of garbage, my advice is to WAKE UP like never before and demand the Environment Minister Matt Swinbourn MLC and Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley MLA intervene.
Because at this point, I think the State Government needs to step in, sort out who is responsible for what, and get this mess cleaned up before they make donkeys out of us all.
#wakeupjoondalup