2020-05-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                        12 MAY 2020


   Council officers working with the landfill gas contractors (LMS) have installed lateral gas
     collection lines in the active cell. The road to Cell 2.2 has been filled to allow for the
     construction of a ring main along with additional vertical lines and manifolds to gain access
     to the newer areas of waste. It is anticipated that this will increase the overall methane
     recovery. LMS are unable to provide details of the estimated increase in capture given the
     variables involved.
   Quarterly onsite meetings have been established between Waste Officers, ZEN
     representatives and LMS. Current trends in gas volume, operational status of wells, future
     plans for the gas network and heat mapping areas of landfill with good/poor gas capture are
     analysed to direct increased future volume of methane capture.
   Landfill leachate system maintenance and upgrade - Contractors have been engaged to
     undertake maintenance and a condition assessment of the leachate rising main and dual
     pumping system to allow for continual discharge of leachate to sewer at the maximum
     discharge rates accepted by Unity Water.

Environmental Compliance
   The following notifications for the landfill have been made to the Department of Environment
     and Science in the reporting period July 2019 to December 2019. The table below shows
     their resolutions to demonstrate the incidents did not lead to off-site environmental impacts.

     Date          Incident              Resolution
     14 October    Total Suspended       Following the receipt of results, visual inspections were
     2019          Solids Compliance     undertaken weekly identifying no sediment deposits on
                   Limit exceedance      vegetation and/or signs of die off or any other indications of
                   following an 80mm     environmental harm. In addition drains were cleaned of
                   overnight intense     accumulated sediment by the on-site contractor. External
                   rainfall event.       contractors were also engaged to undertake maintenance on
                                         the High Efficiency Sediment basin dosing and control
                                         systems to rectify the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) Level.
                                         The Department of Environment and Science required no
                                         further action and closed this matter without any enforcement
                                         action.

   No actual or potential environmental harm from landfilling operations was recorded during
     the reporting period July 2019 to December 2019. Internal weekly and monthly environmental
     inspections continue to be conducted by Council’s Environment Officer.
   Management and control of environmental impacts remain the top priority of the Waste
     Section through the planning process for the construction of the next stage of landfill
     development, due to commence in the next financial year. Preparatory work included a
     detailed flora and fauna study of the land surrounding the landfill site to guide the detailed
     design and master planning process being conducted in 2020FY ensuring that impacts are
     controlled.

Environmental works within the upcoming 6 months include:
   A groundwater review completed in July 2019 identified changes to the groundwater
     monitoring strategy. This requires close monitoring of groundwater quality in BH32, BH5 and
     newly installed upgradient groundwater well BH33 to determine potential landfill impact on
     groundwater at BH32 and BH5 background monitoring wells or changes in ambient
     groundwater quality;
   Review and amendment of the REMP to reflect the changes made in the monitoring program
     since the previous version was drafted in May 2015, including amendments of the
     assessment criteria for decisions on determining requirement for midfield and farfield
     monitoring;
   Ongoing monitoring in accordance with the REMP.

Future Direction

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