The cost to the chicken meat industry has been put at $200 million and farmers are still furious over their compensation.
From what he saw at Mangrove Mountain,Mr Rodger's assessment of foot-and-mouth is that"you wouldn't have a hope in hell of stopping it".
Mr Rodger - whose family was reduced to accepting food parcels after the outbreak - is also chairman of the NSW Contract Poultry Group and represents most chicken farmers around Mangrove Mountain.
They are still angry,he says,over the lack of consultation from government authorities as the outbreak was tackled."You have got to use farmers. Nobody knows their plot of dirt better than the farmer. Farmers just felt isolated."
Had their advice and help been accepted,the outbreak would have been controlled far more quickly and cheaply.
Many locals also fear that the pits are not being monitored closely enough,Mr Rodger said.
The destruction and disposal of seven million animals in Britain last year after a foot-and-mouth outbreak has thrown the spotlight back on carcass disposal. Britain's Environment Agency recorded about 50 cases of water pollution related to carcass burial,but there was no long-term contamination of drinking water. There were about 900 burial sites and 300 complaints about the smell.
The burning of animals on spectacular pyres was seen as a public relations disaster that cost British tourism billions of dollars.
The preferred method of carcass disposal in Australia is burial,although burning was tried first at Mangrove Mountain.
Huge fires fuelled by 120,000 railway sleepers burnt 24 hours a day to destroy more than 500,000 birds,but could not keep up with the killing,says NSW Agriculture's Kevin Cooper,who managed the outbreak.
The pits were built to the highest standard,well above the water table,and rigorous testing had revealed no problems.
NSW Agriculture is now working with local government to identify sites across the state that could be safely used for future carcass burials.
At Mangrove Mountain,the State Government still employs a community worker to help locals adjust. A Department of Community Services survey found that 69 per cent of people felt it would take at least two years to recover economically and emotionally.
Its research identified continuing divisions between chicken farmers and others over issues such as restriction of movement during the emergency. The outbreak also sparked stigma,paranoia and conspiracy theories.
Farmers'children were bullied and the case of the child who had a chicken sandwich unnecessarily confiscated when the school bus was stopped at a checkpoint has become bitter legend.
Mr Rodger says the only good result was Mangrove Mountain was put on the map. When Sydneysiders discovered the beautiful rural property within an hour's drive,real estate prices rose,but"they're already complaining about the smell of chook manure".