Blue Mountains City Council may have to bear the brunt of more than $200,000 in extra waste removal fees from the 2013 bushfires after being knocked back for emergency relief funding.
In a letter to the council’s general manager, Robert Greenwood, last month council was told part of their application on August 7, 2015, for financial assistance from the national Disaster Relief Assistance Program [NDRA] had been deemed “not eligible”.
The program was established to help councils with the cost of recovering from declared natural disasters. But the Public Works NDRA program manager Dave Cullen, said the claim for $219,216 from additional waste processing fees from the disposal of bushfire debris at Blaxland Tip was a result of poor risk analysis by the council.
“BMCC entered into a contract with Thiess for the management of the BWMF [Blaxland Waste Management Facility] with costs based on the volume of waste received. After undertaking some risk analysis, BMCC assumed 40,000 tonnes of waste would be received in 2013/2014. In this event this level was exceeded and as a result BMCC’s weekly payment to Thiess increased ... the NDRA program ... does not underwrite costs resulting from BMCC’s commercial decisions.”
Mayor Mark Greenhill said council had made the claim “based on the funding eligibility criteria at the time the October 2013 disaster was declared and which continues to apply for all costs associated with that disaster”.
“The October 2013 bushfire was one of the biggest natural disasters in NSW history with almost 200 homes destroyed. The property clean-up after the event was unprecedented in NSW bushfire history.”
A council spokeswoman, on behalf of Mr Greenwood, told the Gazette the claim had demonstrated that the 2,914 tonnes of waste material, “directly attributable to the declared disaster, led to the council exceeding its annual tonnage threshold and therefore being liable for additional waste contract costs”.
“The council considers the recovery of eligible expenses related to the additional costs associated with operating the council owned waste management facility, as being legitimate and reasonable and in accordance with NDRA funding criteria.”
Mayor Greenhill said council “at all times during the disaster recovery, attempting to minimise the burden and emotional stress this disaster had on the affected residents and the Blue Mountains community more generally.”
Public Works officials met with council officers in June this year advising that bushfire debris collected by contractors to BMCC cleaning essential public assets; contractors to NRMA Insurance and Allianz Insurance cleaning individual building sites and during the collection of dangerous and damaged trees, was disposed of at a centre in Kemps Creek.
But the meeting also heard private individuals deposited significant amounts of waste at Blaxland tip in the period following the bushfire. The category of this waste had “not been determined”, Mr Cullen said.
Council put in a total claim of $726,637 for NDRA funding. The finance minister Dominic Perrottet only partly approved it – agreeing to fund $415,058.
“This was contrary to earlier advice from NSW Public Works, which stated that NSW Public Works had completed a review of council’s claim and will be recommending payment totalling $726,637,” the council spokeswoman said.
If council is not able to get the full funding it will need to absorb it into the operational budget “potentially impacting core service delivery,” the spokeswoman said.
The tip is no longer managed by Thiess and is under council management.