2022-09-06 Planning & Environment Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   6 SEPTEMBER 2022




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PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                           6 SEPTEMBER 2022

               4.0.   Perspectives from Noosa Shire Council — Presentation by Director Infrastructure
                      Services and Project Coordinator Coastal, Flooding and Foreshores
               Disaster management first-response deals with personal safety first and the safe deployment and
               operation of machinery and equipment. Council staff were dealing with flood response across the
               whole of the shire ensuring safety and access; resources were stretched.
               There was no loss of life or serious injuries during this extreme Noosa Shire flood event.
               4.1.  Operational Challenges
                  e   Pontoon size and weight required chains rather than slings, which were not readily
                      available to enable the quick removal of the pontoons off the beaches.
                  e   Suitability of equipment - Mechanical groomer worked well on high tide mark
                  e   Difficulty sourcing large machinery and time delays transporting machinery to Noosa.
                  e   Lack of beach access to move in the large machinery.
               4.2.   Lessons Learnt

                  e   Pre-warning is essential to facilitating a prompt response.
                  e   Better beach accesses for large machinery is needed at suitable sites.
                  e   Ensure machinery to operate within various capacity limits are identified and available.
                      SCC should be approached for assistance.
                  e   Not breaking pontoons apart on the beach and moving large pontoon units resulted in less
                      clean-up being required afterwards.
                  e   Avoid polystyrene breaking down into small beans as it becomes more difficult to remove
                      from sand and dune system.
                  e   Need to work hand in hand with agencies to streamline efforts.
               4.3.   New Technologies

               Beach groomer and vacuum cleaner to remove smaller polystyrene from sand
               Vacuum cleaners fill up with sand quickly and fail to collect a large quantity of polyfoam, raising
               secondary impact on landfill.
               Discussion:
               NSC decided not to break pontoons to facilitate their removal from the beach. The pontoons were
               made of concrete, metal, and polystyrene, requiring multiple tools. It was difficult to reduce their
               size without releasing lots of polystyrene.
               Helicopters were considered and discussed with ADF, but the weight of the pontoons were above
               helicopter capacity.
               Vacuum cleaners were used on several occasions but ended up collecting more sand than
               polystyrene once the polystyrene was scattered.
               Pontoons should be built with different materials and manufacturing standards. Registration
               status, compliance and regulations need to be reviewed.
               Development of a local disaster working group is needed to respond to environmental disasters.
               Community coastal cleanup working groups would be beneficial, with collaborative support from
               Council.

              Minutes - Polystyrene Round Table - 21 July 2022                                        Page 5

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