A widening split between industry and environmental and community groups has dashed state government hopes of a consensus position on the treatment of hazardous and industrial waste.
A widening split between industry and environmental and community groups has dashed state government hopes of a consensus position on the treatment of hazardous and industrial waste.
The government started a consultation process three years ago to try and reach a unified view on industrial waste treatment, following controversy over the fire at the Bellevue hazardous waste facility and closure of the Brookdale facility.
The so-called 3C committee was charged with identifying technology and suitable sites for the establishment of hazardous waste precincts in the South West, the Goldfields and the Pilbara.
Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief executive John Langoulant has written to Environment Minister Mark McGowan expressing concern about the process and the likely outcomes.
While acknowledging the 3C process has delivered some benefits, Mr Langoulant said adoption of the 3C committee’s recommendations in full “is likely to result in reduced waste treatment services, higher costs and inappropriate disposal and stockpiling of wastes”.
“These outcomes would be in direct contradiction to the original objectives of the 3C,” Mr Langoulant said.
CCI’s principal adviser industry policy, Trevor Lovelle, believes the 3C committee has exceeded its mandate and concluded the CCI “is unlikely to be able to support all the recommendations that the 3C may make”.
The 3C committee is co-chaired by former CCI manager Mary Askey and Contaminated Sites Alliance activist Lee Bell but industry representatives believe its deliberations have been dominated by environmental, community and union groups.
The government’s final decisions could have a big impact on Tox Free Solutions and Total Waste Management, the two companies that dominate industrial waste treatment in Western Australia.
Tox Free has substantially increased its exposure to the sector by making three acquisitions worth up to $12 million in the past eight months.
These include last month’s acquisitions of Henderson company Specialised Tank Cleaning Services.
Total Waste Management, which is jointly owned by Queensland company Transpacific Industries and Collex, also increased its profile through the 2003 acquisition of Environmental Recovery Services.
Much of the waste formerly treated at Brookdale is now transported to TWM’s facility in Kalgoorlie.
CCI believes the consolidation in the industry, combined with the $14 million that has been invested in equipment and training since 2000, means that WA already has new and better waste treatment facilities, which was the original intent of the 3C process.
The chamber has also questioned the logic of having hazardous waste treated in designated precincts.
Rather than separating the production and treatment of hazardous waste, Mr Lovelle believes a better option is to have them co-located and regulated under existing legislation.
If the government decides to establish waste precincts, Mr Lovelle expects the state will face a long and costly process of replicating existing facilities.
“The proposed requirement for treatment facilities to be located in precincts will result in the closure or relocation of existing treatment facilities in WA,” Mr Lovelle said.
The 3C committee last year announced eight potential sites for establishing new industrial waste precincts and is currently seeking to select three preferred sites.
CCI has strongly questioned the committee’s initial conclusions and is unlikely to agree with its final advice to government.
For instance, the chamber believes the committee “made an error of judgement or oversight” by not including a site in Karratha nominated by Tox Free, which already has operations in Port Hedland.
It said the Tox Free site was omitted mainly because of a mistaken assessment of the flood risk.
CCI added that Tox Free nominated the only site with all of the infrastructure and approvals needed to meet the immediate requirement of additional waste treatment services in the Pilbara.
In the South West, CCI strongly believes Kwinana, where Tox Free also has operations, should be considered a suitable site.
Kwinana was excluded mainly because the nomi-nated site is about 2.8 kilometres from sensitive land uses, which is less than the minimum buffer of 3km.
Offsetting this, CCI noted that a large amount of waste is generated in Kwinana and surrounding areas, and transport risks would be lowered if the waste was treated nearby.
The alternatives put forward by the 3C committee include Avon industrial park near Northam and Kemerton industrial park near Bunbury. In the Goldfields, CCI’s pref-erred site is the Mungari industrial estate, located west of Kalgoorlie.
Attempts by the 3C committee to develop operational guidelines for hazardous waste treat-ment created yet another split between industry groups and community and environmental groups.
The latter, which comprise a majority of 3C members, support guidelines based on European Commission standards that define world’s best practice.
“It is the view of the majority of the 3C that the real costs of the treatment of hazardous/industrial waste should be borne by the generator of that waste,” the committee said.
“This may result in higher treatment costs but will also reduce the costs of the externalities (ie poorer public and environmental health).”
Industry representatives on the 3C argue that the guidelines are overly prescriptive and restrictive, and should provide waste treaters with some flexibility about the best way to meet defined outcomes.
They also believe the guidelines, which recommend monitoring of all emissions, do not take account of emerging policies, including the proposal that “emissions that do not pose unacceptable risk to human health or the environment will not require licencing (and therefore monitoring)”.
Total Waste Management general manager Gary Watson said industry representatives on the 3C committee had been frustrated by their inability to influence its outcomes. “The industry has been really struggling to get a voice,” he said.
