Submissions on proposed waste to energy plant open
Submissions open this week on a proposal to build a waste to energy plant in Te Awamutu.
An application to build the plant at 401 Racecourse Road was first lodged with Waipā District Council by Global Contracting Solutions in December 2021. Council sought further information before deciding in September 2022 the application must be publicly notified.
Public notification allows any member of the public, or organisation, to make submissions for or against the proposal.
The proposed plant will incinerate 150,000 tonnes of rubbish annually to generate electric power. If the plant goes ahead, the rubbish would be trucked in from multiple councils across the wider Waikato region. The rubbish would be stored inside buildings, on the site, before being sorted and incinerated.
Group manager growth and regulatory services Wayne Allan said by law, Council is obliged to process the application. He confirmed the proposal does not comply with Waipā’s District Plan rules relating to earthworks, noise, building setbacks, the height of the chimney stack, landscaping/screening and vehicle entrance separation.
The application will be assessed via a joint hearing process with Waikato Regional Council, which has also received resource consent applications in relation to air emissions, the discharge of stormwater and the disposal of clean fill from the proposed plant.
Independent hearing commissioners will assess the applications and consider public submissions, but probably not until the first half of 2024. Waipā District councillors would not be involved in decision-making, he said.
Today, Waipā District Council posted 400 letters to residents and businesses in the vicinity of Racecourse Road, advising the four-week submission process opens this week and closes on Friday, October 13. Details of the resource consent application are available here on Council’s website.