Contaminated Land

NEPM Amendment

The Standing Council on Environment and Water has approved an amendment to the National Environment Protection (Assessment of Site Contamination) Measure (also known as the NEPM).

ASBG is holding a series of conferences on the latest regulatory and policy perspective on contaminated land.

·       16 May 2013 in Sydney

·       23 May 2013 in Melbourne

·       30 May 2013 in Brisbane

The conference has been prepared for landowners and practitioners. It will focus on the amendment to the Assessment of Contaminated Site NEPM, other current regulatory changes and technical aspects of contaminated land management.

The NEPM establishes a nationally-consistent approach to the assessment of site contamination to ensure sound environmental management practices by the community which includes regulators, site assessors, contaminated land auditors, land owners, developers and industry.

The NEPM contains two schedules:

·       Schedule A, which is included in the NEPM, identifies the recommended process for the Assessment of Site Contamination.

·       Schedule B of the NEPM comprises 10 general guidelines for the Assessment of Site Contamination. (Schedules B(1) – (10) can be downloaded from the Environment Protection and Heritage Council.) 

A review of the NEPM commenced in 2004. In June 2007, NEPC agreed to initiate a process to vary the NEPM based on recommendations made in the NEPM review.  The amendment was finally approved by the Standing Council on Environment and Water on 11 April 2013.

The variation will ensure that the NEPM remains the premier document for the assessment of site contamination in Australia by drawing on the latest methodologies for assessing human and ecological risk from site contamination and updating guidance on site assessment methods in line with technological changes in Australia and overseas.

The recent amendment ensures it will remain the premier document for the assessment of site contamination in Australia, used by regulators, site assessors, consultants, environmental auditors, landowners, developers and industry.

The measure incorporates updated methodologies for assessing human and ecological risks and site assessment methods now in line with advances in Australia and overseas.

State Ministers have recognised the contributions from all stakeholders, including the National Health and Medical Research Council, in the development of the updated measure.

A progressive story

Ok.

I am both bored and time constrained and I have vague ambitions of becoming a writer.

Prompted by the posting of John Birmingham and a random drug induced post on twitter by Sally Piracha about her ambitions to be a romance writer: I would like to enlist the help of friends and strangers to crowd source a Romance novel.

So here is how it works.  We shall collectively create a story.

I will be the editor.  Your contributions will be published at my discretion.

The objective is to add a sentence or two at a time and attempt to maintain some sort of continuity and build on the character development.

What is the worst that can happen?

Our story is set in modern day Brisbane.  The genre is "Romance Novel".

.....and so we begin.....


Theo never liked his dead-end, clerical job in the Department of Public Works and Housing (or Housing and Public Works as they now called it), until he no longer had a job.

How much carbon tax will Brisbane City Council pay?

Captain Quirk is blaming the Carbon Tax for Brisbane City Council rate rises.... He has said: "rise could have been kept to 2.6 per cent, or $31.48 a year, if not for costs associated with the carbon tax, including landfill charges."

I am trying to work out how much Carbon Tax we will pay.


Brisbane City Council's NGER's data.

Registered Corporation	Total scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions(t CO2-e)	Total scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions(t CO2-e)	Total energy consumption (GJ)
Brisbane City Council1	263,920	18,271	2,504,217

So we are looking at:

282,191 t CO2-e

At $23 a tonne:

$6,490,393.00

1: Brisbane City Council has voluntarily provided information to the Greenhouse Energy Data Office (GEDO) concerning GreenPower renewable energy purchases, voluntarily surrendered Renewable Energy Certificates or offset scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions totals. This information has been published on the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency website – www.climatechange.gov.au/reporting.

Councilor Victoria Newton (‏@VictoriaNewton) directed my attention to information about capture of methane emissions from landfill: http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/emissions-from-landfill-facilities-2/ Apparently there is no charge in 2012/13 2 help deal with the changes...

Toilet Humour for World Toilet Day

Brisbane Arts Theatre helps Engineers Without Borders with special fundraising performance

The Brisbane Arts Theatre’s latest production - How To Be A Man - has its fair share of toilet humour.

But on Saturday 19 November - World Toilet Day - it’s all for a serious cause.

The BAT is teaming up with the South-East Queensland chapter of Engineers Without Borders, to raise awareness and funds of their work providing critical sanitation for some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities.

$2 from every ticket sold at How To Be A Man on 19 November will go to EWB, as well as proceeds of a large raffle and casual donations.

“We want people to come out and have a laugh, as our play contains high levels of toilet humour,” says director Natalie Bochenski.

“But it’s a great way to get across the serious message of the world’s sanitation crisis, and do our bit to help.”

“2.6 billion people do not have a designated, sustainable place to poo or wee,” says Rowan Barber, a Brisbane engineer and member of EWB.

“The statistics are unfathomable - every 8 seconds, a child dies from easily preventable, fecal- related illness.

Rowan says even the word “sanitation” fails to convey the gravity of the situation. “People are dying because they live and breathe poo. Children suffer malnutrition, not because of a lack of food but because their food passes through them. Dysentery. Diarrhea. Vomiting. These are the symptoms of the crisis.”

The good news is Engineers Without Borders DOES make a difference. All funds raised from the BAT’s charity performance will support the organisation in projects such as building latrines for floating villages along the Tonle Sap river in Cambodia; or closer to home, a culturally-appropriate amenities block at the Murra Murra indigenous homestead past St George, in South-West Queensland.

Rowan says we’ve become a “flush and forget” society; and it’s a good time to think of the local impacts of our waste.

In 2010/2011, 149,198 ML of poo, wee and wastewater was generated by 1.3 million Brisbane residents and 4,700 tradewaste customers,” says Rowan.

“That works out about 164 Olympic size swimming pools a day.”

How To Be A Man

Charity Performance for World Toilet Day

Saturday 19 November

$2 from each ticket sold will go to Engineers Without Borders

Warning: Production contains explicit content & adult themes

TOILET TRIVIA

World Toilet Day was founded in 2001 by the World Toilet Organisation, and is celebrated

every year on 19 November. (http://www.worldtoilet.org/wto/index.php/our-works/world-

toilet-day)

Many organisations support this day with fundraising/awareness efforts; including Engineers

Without Borders (www.ewb.org.au). This is where the BAT’s charity efforts will go.

"EWB cultivates long-term relationship with communities, both here and overseas, and we

focus on building on the strengths of those communities, so that they are more able to

manage their own future. Most of us here in Australia take things like clean toilets for

granted. We want people everywhere to be able to live their lives free from diseases and

disadvantages that are easily preventable by having appropriate and well-designed sanitation

systems." - Kat Healey (EWB SEQ Chapter President)

The World Health Organisation has a great list of 10 quick facts about sanitation. (http://

www.who.int/features/factfiles/sanitation/facts/en/index.html). One of the most revealing is

that a lack of safe, secure toilets can often disrupt girls’ schooling, particularly as they reach

puberty. Better toilets equals better education!

The Brisbane Arts Theatre has a urinal named after author John Birmingham and playwright

Simon Bedak, after the success of our previous productions He Died With a Felafel in His Hand

(2009) and The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (2010).

The Brisbane Arts Theatre is an independent community organisation that receives no

ongoing government or corporate sponsorship.

How To Be A Man

Plays Thurs to Sat nights from 8pm

12 November to 17 December

Tickets $31 adults; $25 concession; $20 members

Book online: www.artstheatre.com.au