Brookdale closure starts to hurt

Western Australian industry is looking for new waste treatment options following last year’s closure of the Brookdale waste treatment plant. Mark Beyer reports.

Perth industry is starting to pay a direct financial price for last year’s closure of the Brookdale waste treatment plant, with costs rising sharply.

Most categories of liquid industrial waste now have to be trucked to Kalgoorlie, with some wastes being sent interstate because there are no local treatment options.

The spike in costs has led some companies on the Kwinana industrial strip to consider establishing their own facilities, with Specialised Tank Cleaning Services announcing last week a proposal to build a new wastewater treatment plant in Henderson.

However, the construction of a major new facility to service industries producing the more difficult waste types is precluded by the long-term planning process now under way for a new waste precinct.

That process is expected to take several years, and in the meantime private firm Total Waste Management and its sister company, Western Resource Recovery, hold an effective monopoly on many waste types.

Industry representatives have expressed frustration about the current predicament, especially as testing at Brookdale is yet to reveal any serious contamination.

Rob Goldfinch, who was a former manager at Brookdale but is currently a consultant to Specialised Tank Cleaning Services, highlighted the increased cost of waste disposal.

“The cost of the disposal services has escalated dramatically in the last year, becoming almost prohibitive and by far the single biggest impost on STCS’s operations,” he said.

Mr Goldfinch said STCS needed to deal with five million litres of oily wastewater every year from its tank cleaning business for the shipbuilding and marine industries.

“By installing its own [facility], STCS will be able to remain competitive by offering its clients significantly reduced disposal charges,” he told WA Business News.

“This will also have desirable outcomes for the community and environment by reducing the high volume of tankered waste traffic leaving the coastal zone for the inland third party [waste treatment facilities].”

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA environmental policy adviser Mary Askey said costs of waste treatment ranged from about 10 cents per litre up to 90 cents per litre.

The latter price applies to some of the most difficult wastes, such as concentrated chemicals, that need to be sent interstate.

Total Waste Management general manager Gary Watson told WA Business News that his firm was planning to increase charges to reflect higher costs facing its business.

“At present we are providing a treatment service for some categories of waste at a price that is lower than the cost to us,” Mr Watson said.

“No business can continue to do this without going broke, so I will be making some adjustments to these prices to ensure that our business remains viable.”

Mr Watson said one example of increased costs was higher landfill charges levied by the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

TWM uses landfill to dispose of certain solid wastes that have been through its treatment plant.

The city recently advised that it was reclassifying waste from TWM and, as a result, TWM’s landfill charges have doubled from $22 a tonne to $44/t.

The task of finding a long-term solution to the problem of industrial waste treatment has been passed to the so-called 3C consultative committee, co-chaired by the CCI’s Ms Askey and Lee Bell from the Contaminated Sites Alliance.

The 3C committee is seeking to define criteria for identifying acceptable locations and technologies for a future waste treatment precinct.

The major issue it has tackled is the appropriate buffer distance between the waste treatment precinct and “sensitive land uses”.

The range of distances suggested in public submissions was from 500 metres to 30 kilometres, and the committee concluded that “whatever buffer distance is selected it will not please everyone”.

While the committee’s work is not complete, its draft criteria states that the waste treatment precinct would need a buffer of at least three kilometres and preferably six kilometres from “sensitive land uses”.

The committee also plans to recommend that incineration and landfill of hazardous wastes should not be allowed in the precinct.

The committee’s work has highlighted the difficulty of finding a solution that is both environmentally and commercially sustainable.

Ms Askey said the Government might have to intervene to ensure commercial proposals were forthcoming.

Mr Watson said TWM had invested $8 million establishing its Kalgoorlie plant in 2000 but was reluctant to invest more money given the current uncertainty.

“The 3C process has created uncertainty,” he said “It has made it difficult for us to invest in Kalgoorlie with confidence while the Government may approve another site closer to the waste generators.”

Mr Watson said he agreed with the need for consultation but wanted a faster, more decisive process.

An additional factor that may influence TWM is protests by neighbouring residents about alleged side effects from the waste treatment plant.

Planning for the new waste treatment precinct started last year, after the State Government decided to close the Brookdale plant, near Armadale.

The Government has already budgeted $3.7 million for the closure, with $2.8 million paid to former plant operator Cleanaway and up to $900,000 set aside for site investigation, final clean-up and community consultation.

A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Judy Edwards said the Government was prepared to spend “whatever the cost is determined to be” on the clean-up, but so far there had been no nasty surprises.

Early this month, Dr Edwards released test results showing the soil was “well below residential health investigation levels for a range of contaminants”.

And in July last year she said “intensive audit and monitoring over several months – with independent verification – confirmed the plant has caused no unacceptable public health or environmental impacts”.

All of which begs the question of why Brookdale, which was the site of passionate community protests, had to be closed in the first place?

Dr Edwards said it was closed “in recognition of the poor history of community consultation and breach of trust in its management”.

KEY POINTS 

• Waste treatment costs have risen following closure of the Brookdale plant.
• Most liquid industrial waste now has to be sent to Kalgoorlie.
• Industry in Kwinana is looking to establish new facilities.
• Planning for a new waste treatment precinct is expected to take several years.