Page 1842 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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The EPA will only escalate their response if anomalies are raised as a result of the initial enquiry. This would include whether there are identified non-compliance with agreed operational conditions or there has been a significant environmental incident. To date all responses received have indicated no events have occurred which would demonstrate unsatisfactory operation resulting in the need for further investigation.
It is not feasible for these facilities to be zero emitters of odour and under certain climatic conditions, odour may be detected beyond the MLRMC boundary. However, the EPA will continue to monitor the situation to ensure all operators in the MLRMC are compliant with their environmental approvals.
(b) Odour modelling undertaken by ACT NoWaste as part of the Environmental Impact Statement for the landfill expansion shows that odour impacts would be acceptable for nearby built up and residential areas, essentially attenuation through a distance of over one kilometre. As a comparison, the ACT Governments Separation Distance Guidelines for Air Emissions only specifies a separation distance of 500 metres for a landfill.
Notwithstanding this, ACT NoWaste as the asset owner have been concerned by the increase in odour complaints from the MLRMC in recent years and in late 2017 established a program to undertake routine odour monitoring of the MLRMC and surrounding areas.
The purpose of the work is to proactively conduct a series of ambient odour field surveys to assess the intensity of odours in the area surrounding the MLRMC, and undertake infield gas measurements to quantify the effectiveness of the tarpaulin covers being trialled by Remondis with approval from the EPA.
To date, eight rounds of monitoring have been undertaken as follows:
• Round 1 – 21, 22 and 23 December 2017
• Round 2 – 19, 20 and 21 June 2018
• Round 3 – 17, 18 and 19 December 2018
• Round 4 – 17, 18 and 19 June 2019
• Round 5 – 27, 28 and 29 August 2019
• Round 6 – 26, 27 and 28 November 2020
• Round 7 – 25, 26 and 27 February 2020
• Round 8 – 2, 3 and 4 June 2020
These surveys showed the findings of field odour surveys in relation to odour sources within MLRMC and surrounding areas and they identify approximate extent of the odour plume downwind of the identified sources and presents the odour characteristics of the odours emitted from these sources.
The surrounding industries may also contribute to the odour types and sources and include:
• Boral asphalt plant – bitumen, asphalt odours - 1,100 m
• Re.Group Material Recovery Facility – garbage, putrid odours - 290 m
• Hume asphalt plant – bitumen odours - 1,450 m
• Dry waste facility – no odours emanated - 1,150 m
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