CMCOAG - SMRC RRRC's Waste Composting Facility Odour

Dr Mike Nahan, the Member for Riverton said the end game was nigh for the SMRC's composting plant in Bannister Road, Canning Vale. "It will be closed, not just for odour pollution but because of excessive costs," said Dr Nahan.

Dr Nahan said the SMRC plant was modelled on a similar plant in Cobb County, Georgia USA. The SMRC sent representatives to the USA in 1996 to view that plant's operations and based their decision to proceed with the plant in Canning Vale on Cobb County's experience.

"The experience of the Cobb County plant has been eerily predictive of the problems that have overwhelmed the SMRC's Canning Vale plant. The US plant has been plagued by fire, odour pollution, community protest, empty promises, poor management, no market for output, cost blow-outs, and rising debt," said Dr Nahan.

"The SMRC composting plant can no longer be justified financially. Its business case has evaporated. Since 2004, its costs for processing a tonne of municipal solid waste have increased from $36 per tonne to $137 per tonne in 2009/10. That is an increase of 400% in the last five years." -- See graph below:
http://cmcoag.com/news-articles/SMRC%20Plant%20Not%20Financially%20Viable%20-%20Mike%20Nahan.pdf

Quoted from DEC press release:

Canning Vale Waste Facility Must Reduce Odour Emissions
Friday, 31 October 2008
The Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) is requiring a Canning Vale waste facility to carry out extensive odour reduction works following community complaints and a subsequent investigation.
The Southern Metropolitan Regional Council's (SMRC) Regional Resource Recovery Centre (RRRC) separates recyclable products from waste, which is converted into compost and mulch.
After receiving ongoing community complaints about odours being emitted from the facility, DEC conducted an investigation which included extensive air quality testing and an independent market survey of 265 households and businesses within a 1.2km radius of the facility.
DEC Deputy Director General Robert Atkins said the results from the air quality tests and survey confirmed odours were being emitted from the facility and they were unreasonably impacting on the community.
"Almost one third of all survey participants identified odours in the local area, while 64 per cent of participants had noticed odours in the months leading up to the survey in July," Mr Atkins said.
DEC ordered the SMRC to carry out odour reduction works in 2006, and while the subsequent works have reduced the odours to an extent, they have failed to resolve odour emission problems at the facility.
The Department is also conducting investigations into potential breaches of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 relating to odour incidents linked to the facility from earlier this year.
DEC today directed the SMRC to prepare an odour abatement plan for the facility within 21 days, after which an Environmental Protection Notice will be served requiring the abatement of the emission of unreasonable odours and the implementation of the abatement program within a set timeframe.
"DEC will also amend the licence for the RRRC to include an offensive odour condition to enable prompt enforcement action when plant failures cause unreasonable odour emissions and the Department expects the SMRC to act quickly to resolve the odour problem in light of this conclusive evidence," Mr Atkins said.
"DEC recognises that the facility provides an important waste management service for its member councils, but the SMRC needs to reduce odour emissions to ensure its continued operation and acceptance by the local community."
The full air quality report and community survey is available at www.dec.wa.gov.au.

Why isn't the Minister for Environment Saving Residents from this Noxious Odour?

In a Public document from the Minister for Environment, David Templeman (dated 12 September 2007) it states:

"Odour Compliance Regulation"

Under section 49 of the Environmental Protection Act, it is an offence to cause or allow an unreasonable emission of odour. Unreasonable odours are defined as those that unreasonably interfere with the health, welfare, comfort and amenity of the public. An offence under this section is classified as a Tier Two offence."

"Under the commitments made in the Ministerial Statement No 517, SMRC committed to ensuring that odours would be contained within an odour contour which extended approximately 200 metres from the RRRC boundary, but did not impact on residential areas. A commitment is legally binding and contravention of a commitment is a Tier One offence."

Note from CMCOAG: Residents are experiencing the odour up to 1.5kms - 2kms away from the facility!

What does it say when it appears that members of federal, state and local government choose to protect the actual facility that is bombarding us with these emissions - at the expense of residents families and pets health and quality of life. Especially when we've begged for help on so many occassions.

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I demand the following:
*That the RRRC stops preventing me from the enjoyment of my house and garden.
*That the RRRC does not have an adverse effect on the health of me and my family and born and unborn grandchildren.
*That RRRC confirm that these toxins are not responsible for the birth defect which my four weeks old grandson was born with.
*What measures is the RRRC taking to prevent toxic omissions that triggered the shutdown of this plant.
*I demand an explanation why you make us live like this.

"It is a basic human right to be able to breathe in air without the air making people sick!!!! Lets hope and pray we are not going to be subjected to the unbelievable situation the hundreds of us have had to endure the last 4 years again!!!!!!"

"The smell last night coming from the RRRC was horrendous. I tried to put my three year old daughter to sleep but couldn't, she was uncomfortable with the heat. We ended up opening the windows to get some of the breeze. It felt like sleeping in my rubbish bin. I have another daughter who is 5 weeks old. Can you imagine the reaction of a 5 week old baby when exposed to that. She was sneezing the whole night, here eyes were teary and needless to say did not sleep. We ended up closing the windows, but it was too late the smell was in the house, beds, pillows, the lot. So we now have to put up with the heat and the smell."

Whenever the Odour is really bad we get rashes under our eyes, eyes burning, running noses, sneezing, coughing and gagging, migraines, severe chest pains when trying to breath and feel nauseous. Our pets also suffer coughing and gagging, itching, runny eyes and noses. We cannot shut the smell out in summer because the odour pours through the windows and air vents.

You can view more updates and what the residents are going through due to the RRRC Waste Composting Facility odour here:
http://www.cmcoag.com/

Jim McGinty says - Statements Made in SMRC Ad Were Not Approved by the Dept of Health.
"I note your comments regarding an advertisement placed in the Melville City Herald by the SMRC, which included references to the DOH. The statements made in the advertisement and attributed to the DOH were not approved by the DOH. The DOH has not been able to verify that there are no toxic emissions from the RRRC facility."

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Communities Take Action On Air Quality!

Some members of the CMCOAG attended
and completed the National Bucket Brigade Training
over the weekend.

And have been trained in accordance with the
US EPA Quality Control and Quality Assurance
Program.
http://www.cmcoag.com/downloads/bbcertforsitesmall.gif

Also...

Community Environment Groups launch
AIR CARE AUSTRALIA - An initiative of the
Australian National Bucket Brigade.

Read the full press release here:
http://www.cmcoag.com/downloads/ACA-Bucket-Brigade.pdf

Kind regards
CMCOAG

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Residents to attend council meetings

We need residents who are not happy about having
the RRRC's Waste Composting Facility odour pumped
into their lungs to show their opposition by attending
Melville Council, Canning Council and SMRC meetings.

Melville invest a substancial amount of your hard
earned rates into the RRRC and more questions need
to be directed at them - as they are just as responsible as any other council who is involved in the SMRC. Deputy Chairman of the SMRC is Cr Clive Robartson of the City of Melville.

The RRRC itself is on Canning land and the residents
of Willetton have suffered severely - which is
why attending Canning Council Meetings is important.

SMRC meetings are just as important to attend so we
can keep up to date on what's going on -- rather than being the last to know!

It's YOUR turn to speak up and let them know
that this isn't just a few residents worried
about a bad smell - far from it!

It's many folk within the suburbs of Leeming
and Willetton (and surrounding suburbs) concerned
about their families health, the apalling
mis-management of the plant and that this issue
should not be about the financial well being of
the seven councils of the SMRC - rather the
residents that are suffering due a plant that
appears to be an environmental disaster.

If you don't want to attend council meetings then please voice your concerns here:
http://www.cmcoag.com/odour-complaint.htm

Kind regards
CMCOAG
http://www.cmcoag.com/