A report recommending Council grant a planning permit for the development of an organic processing facility in Huntly will be considered at the September Council meeting.
Approval of a planning permit would be the first step in the project's development.
Before construction can occur, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) must also give its approval by issuing a Development Licence. The EPA is an independent regulator and its decision making processes are entirely separate from Council's.
The facility would be built by Western Composting Technology on a 6.2ha site located next to the Bendigo Livestock Exchange on Wallenjoe Road, Huntly.
The City's planning permit considers if the site is appropriate to house an organic processing facility, and the Development Licence focuses on the technical operations of the site (e.g. size of the facility and its ability to appropriately manage odour, waste water etc.).
After a scan of available land across the municipality, the Wallenjoe Road site was selected as it is appropriately zoned Industrial 1, with generous buffers that meet various separation requirements. Coliban Water's water treatment plant is located to the south, state forest is to the west, and farmland to the north and east.
There would be no impact to Bendigo Livestock Exchange operations, which sells approximately 900,000 sheep annually, and there are no bio-security concerns related to the planned development.
Organic material would be held in a semi-enclosed building and shredded before being placed in climate-controlled vessels to undergo pasteurisation (a heating method to remove harmful bacteria). The material would then be transferred to long rows where it will mature for up to 16 weeks prior to being screened and the final compost product being dispatched for use.
The proposed facility would employ up to 10 staff, process up to 30,000 ton of organic waste per year, significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and produce a high-quality material for agricultural and domestic use.
