Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray voices concerns about Cleanaway landfill expansion

The campaign against the expansion of the Banksia Road landfill site has been strengthened after Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray added his voice.

The Dardanup site is operated by Cleanaway and the company is seeking development approval in order to handle lithium tailings.

Mr Murray said he believed the tailings should be taken back to the Greenbushes mine site where they were extracted.

“If it came out of there then why can’t it be put back there?” he said.

“The other thing is that people are making all sorts of assertions about what is in the tailings — I believe we should have a major study to see what could be recovered before it’s put on a tip.

“There may be another processing plant that can create even more jobs and less tailings to be dumped.”

Mr Murray said there had been problems with dust nearly every year at the site since it started expanding just over a decade ago.

“I get calls about it just about on cue from residents,” he said.

“Early this year when I was driving across from Boyanup I could see the dust coming off the scarp very, very easily.

“That is a major concern of mine, because when you get the easterly it blows virtually straight into the doors of the Dardanup people.”

He also echoed the concerns of the Dardanup Environmental Action Group about water run-off from the site.

“Once I started to see there have been some failings in the management of the site in terms of dust and water containment it put me in the position where I would support the Dardanup people,” he said.

“I’m not saying shut the site down but I think what they are trying to take on is far too large.

“I’ve been told that they can stack the tailings up to 40m high — which might be good if we wanted a ski slope or something along those lines.

“It is just a very big change to the site to what I believe it was originally intended for — I don’t think there was ever an intention to expand the tip to that size.”

Last week Mr Murray tabled a petition in the Legislative Council with more than 1000 signatures calling for the tailings not to be dumped at the Dardanup site.