The public has been given assurances about Tasmania’s first hazardous waste dump which will operate in the state’s south.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has approved the waste dump which will allow industries to stop sending dangerous material interstate.
The $9 million facility will be developed on a landfill site at Copping by Southern Waste Services, a body created by the Clarence, Sorell, Tasman and Kingborough councils.
The EPA’s Alex Schaap says Hobart’s Nyrstar zinc smelter will be able to send waste to the site, including the by-product jarosite.
“Nyrstar has some material on site that accumulated many years ago that does present an issue that either needs to be reprocessed, or needs to be placed in a more secure site, and one of the options for that would certainly be the category C cell if it developed at Copping,” he said.
“One of the platforms upon which the business case for that site operates is that if Nyrstar were to move its waste there, then immediately there would be a good deal of product going into the site.
“So that was certainly entertained.”
Mr Schaap says there will be several measures in place to stop toxins leaching into groundwater.
“This will have a combination of various liners, including man-made and clay materials, but it’s a multi-layer thing,” he said
“So you effectively have a double layer of protection and you’ll have an early indication if there is any difficulty in the first liner.”
Clarence mayor Doug Chipman says the dump will possibly take contaminated soil from the disused Hobart railyards.
He says there is a clear need for the dump.
“People have been shipping hazardous waste to Queensland to get rid of it, otherwise it has to be stockpiled,” he said.
“So it’s really important that this project go ahead, particularly as sites such as the railyards have to be cleaned up in the future.
“You can understand that to build a facility with all the protection that’s required is quite expensive.
“It’s the only facility of its nature in Tasmania once it’s built, so it’s really important that we go ahead.”
The head of Southern Waste Services, Christine Bell, has told ABC Local Radio the community was consulted about the development.
“Each load will be subject to approval by the EPA and the landfill cell is designed so that no leachate, or any other waste, will be leaking from the cell, it’s completely secure.”
State Labor MP Rebecca White says she has not been notified of the plans for a toxic waste dump in her electorate.
“Council hasn’t told me that this was occurring,” she said.
“I understand obviously the tip’s been there a long time, it’s one of the major tips for the region.
“But it wasn’t raised with me that it would be changing.”
