Last year a group of Terara residents, concerned about flood implications of an illegal levee created by the spoil from Terara Sands, raised the issue in the hope that council would make the operation stick to the terms of its development application.

Those terms stated the spoil was not to be stockpiled on the island.

“The dump on the island has got bigger despite what council said was going to happen,” resident Les McCulloch said.

“It seems stupid. Council has promised all these things to the residents.

“The company took quite a lot of stuff off the island after the last bit of publicity but since then more has been dumped, in fact there’s more there now than ever.

“Council promised the world and nothing’s happened, it’s the same thing that’s been happening for many years,” he said.

Shoalhaven City Council’s director of Development and Environmental Services Tim Fletcher agreed there had been some problems with the previously approved arrangement resulting in material from the sand mining operation being left on the island.

“The original arrangement was that the material would be removed by truck on a private ferry.

“However there were considerable issues with that, particularly the safety of truck drivers using the ferry.

“The issue is not just about the trucks on the barge, it’s also been a problem in terms of disposing of the material. “There haven’t been enough large developments happening that could take the material.

“In last couple of months we have had meetings with the owners of Terara Sands and the owner of Pig Island,” he said.

Mr Fletcher said there had been discussions about a new proposal that will involve removing all of the accumulated material and placing it as fill within the low depressions on the island.

“Alan Price and Associates is preparing the development application for this which will either be submitted to council or straight to State Government.”

Mr Fletcher said either way it will involve a flood study.

“If it stacks up from a technical perspective then it may well be a far better solution,” he said.