200910 ANG env report october

return fire
Otway Fire Operations Plan for 2009-2012 is released
alcoa anglesea
2009
environment report
october
ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT OCTOBER 2009
air
Air Monitoring
Stack Monitors
Average
Maximum
Opacity g/m3 10-minute average
0.043
0.144
Stack SO2 kg/min 1-hour average Licence limit 100kg/min
71.03
80.52
SO2 1 hour ppb
Average
Maximum
Community Centre
1
35
Primary School
1
119
Mt Ingoldsby
2
177
Scout Camp
3
119
Camp Wilkin
1
94
Camp Road
1
113
Ambient Monitors
Ambient Monitors
SO2 Maximum 1 hour averages (ppb)
Date
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Community Centre 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 35 0 0 0 0 0 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 29 1
Primary School
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
9 119 0
0
0
0
0
11 4
0
Mt Ingoldsby
1
1
2
2
0
-
-
-
2
1
-
-
0
1
2
0
8
2
0
2
Scout Camp
0
0
1
2
33 0
0
0
0
2
5 119 83 4 103 80 1
9
1
65 1
Camp Wilkin
1
0
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
94 23 27 0
0
1
2
1
49 1
Camp Road
1
0 1
2
1
1
-
0
1
2
2
11 1
1
0
EPA Air Quality Objective
200
Alcoa Local Standard
170
-
0
64 113 1
0 0
0
4
0
1
3
3
0
1
4
2
4 177 2
0
0
2
0
0
4
1
2
5 11
0
0
0
2
0
1
5
0
0
40 0
20 110 1
1
0 1
0
0
5 0
2
2
0 0
13 0
1
ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT OCTOBER 2009
water
Water Storage
Barwon Water storage levels for the Geelong system at 35% capacity. Stage 4 restrictions apply with a
Daylight Savings exemption to permit limited residential garden watering.
Water Discharge
ML
October
Total
Ashponds (SP1)
158
1310
Mine (SP4)
0
0
Water Monitoring
SP1
SP4
SP3
19/10/2009
Ashpond
Mine
Final
EPA limit
Lab Result
EPA limit
Lab Result
EPA limit
Lab Result
pH
4-10
7.6
3-9
no
5-9
7.1
Susp. Solids
100
<4
100
discharge
30
<4
Colour
50
4
50
at
50
5
Aluminium
10
0.23
10
time
5.5
0.21
Iron
10
0.13
20
of
4.0
0.029
Zinc
0.4
0.019
2.0
sampling
0.30
0.010
WATER WATER USAGE PER MONTH (ML)
Date
JAN
FEB MAR APR
MAY JUNE JULY AUG
Town Water
2.5
1.0
1.5
1.5
2.9
1.6
0.6
1.1
1.4
0.7
14.8
Bore Water
288
270
281
237
76
233
231
232
224
239
2311
Mine Water
46
53
54
65
27
66
79
59
75
98
622
SEPT OCT
NOV
DEC
TOTAL
ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT OCTOBER 2009
Prescribed burning
While every effort is made to prevent fires from
starting, Victoria will always experience bushfires
from either natural or human causes. These
bushfires can threaten human life, property, assets
and, at times, the environment. One way of
protecting assets and also limiting the spread and
severity of bushfires is by strategically reducing the
‘fuel’ in our parks and forests. Fuel reduction burns
are fires of low intensity used to remove the fine,
more flammable fuel. By doing this, a bushfire that
either burns into a fuel reduced area, or starts in
one will have a lower flame height, reduced
intensity and will spread at a slower rate, making
fire fighting easier.
The term ‘prescribed burning’ refers to the use of
fire to achieve planned burn land and resource
management objectives:
> fuel management: protecting life and property
from uncontrolled wildfire through development
and implementation of strategies for fire prevention
and suppression;
> flora and fauna management: active use of
controlled fire to alter habitat structure and plant
and animal community composition to achieve
biodiversity conservation outcomes.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment
and Parks Victoria have just released the Otway
Fire Operations Plan for 2009/10 to 2011/12.
The Anglesea Heath Consultative Committee, of
which Alcoa Anglesea is a member, provided
comments on the draft plan, and some of these
comments were incorporated into the final version.
The plan nominates four burns for the Anglesea
area in 2009/10. These include:
> Anglesea ovals (41 ha)
> Gum Flats Road (735 ha)
> Messmate Track (239 ha)
> Pipeline Track (75 ha)
Conducting prescribed burns is not without risk.
However, the risks associated with fuel reduction
burning under controlled conditions are far outweighed by the increased risk of bushfire if no fuel
reduction has occurred.
The Otway Fire Operations Plan can be viewed at
www.dse.vic.gov.au.
Within the community there exists a range of views
regarding the role of fire. These range from the
belief that there should be no interference to
natural fire patterns through to the belief that fire
should be used freely as a management tool
because it is a natural part of the forest ecology.
Regardless of viewpoint, fire was, is and will remain
part of ecological Australia.
PLANT OF THE ANGLESEA HEATH
COMMON FLAT PEA (Platylobium obtusangulum)
Platylobium....from the Greek, platy, broad and flat, and
lob, lobes referring to the broad, flat lobe shaped seed pods
obtusangulum... from Greek, obtusus, meaning blunt, dull
or obtuse and angulum, crooked or angular, referring to the
shape of the leaves.
Size:
0.6 - 1m H x 1m W
Form:
wiry, upright or scrambling shrub
Habitat:
Dry and valley sclerophyll forests, sclerophyll
and redgum woodlands, tea-tree heath and
grassy low open forest.
Foliage:
leaves are triangular or arrow shaped to 30
mm long with 1 - 3 sharp points
Flowers:
yellow and red pea flowers on short stalks
September - December
PLATYLOBIUM OBTUSANGULUM
ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT OCTOBER 2009
LAND
RAINFALL (mm)
Month
JAN
FEB MAR APR
MAY JUNE JULY AUG
2009 Rainfall
5.0
5.8
33.4
63.8
47.2
43.8
1968-2008 Average
43.9
42.5 40.4
51.6
60.2
59.5 62.6
79.2
SEPT OCT
NOV
DEC
TOTAL
91.6
61.0
49.4
480.2
65.2
67.0
69.4
562.3
WATER
TOWN WATER USE (ML)
FEB
MAR APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG SEP
Process
23.9
15.5
1 2 . 4 2.5
0.8
1.2
1.3
2.3
1.5
0.5
0.7
1.1
0.5
Amenity
11.6
1.5
2.4
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.6
0.1
0.1
0.4
0.3
0.2
2000 2008 2009 JAN
0.0
OCT
NOV
DEC
AIR
GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) TOTAL (Mt) & GHG EMISSION EFFICENCY (t/MWh)
GHG Mt
‹ GHG
t/MWh
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
1.23
1.27
1.50
1.45
1.47
1.31
1.49
1.40
1.42
1.32
1.24
1.19
1.21
1.21
1.20
1.21
1.20
1.18
1.20
1.21
ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT OCTOBER 2009
environmental improvement
Environmental Management Targets
October
2009 Total
Forecast
2009 Target
Reportable Environmental Incidents
0
1
1
0
Env Near Miss vs Env Incident Run Rate (ratio)
4
2.1
2.1
2.5
Monthly EHS ASAT Audit Completion (%)
100
93
93
90
Air Emission Targets
October
2009 Total
Forecast
2009 Target
Ambient SO2 (no. readings > 200ppb)
0
2
2
0
Stack SO2 (no. hrs > 100kg/min)
0
0
0
0
SO2 Load Reductions (lost MWh)
1620
31675
38009
N/A
GHG Efficiency (t CO2 e/MWh)
1.16
1.21
1.21
1.20
Opacity (10 min av > 0.25g/m normal operation)
0
0
0
0
Water Targets
October
2009 Total
Forecast
2009 Target
Town Water (ML)
0.7
14.9
17.9
14.2
Bore Water (ML)
239
2311
2773
4000
Waste Targets
October
2009 Total
Forecast
2009 Target
Waste to Landfill (t)
0.0
11.64
14.0
8.0
Solid Prescribed Waste to Landfill (t)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
3
Mine Rehabilitation Targets
2009 Total
2009 Target
2009 Area to Clear (ha)
0.245
0.0
2009 Area to Rehabilitate (ha)
0.658
0.0
OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR EMPLOYEE
Hi Lisa, I understand you are the Chairperson of the
Anglesea Heath Consultative Committee. What was you
role in regard to the Otway Fire Operations Plan?
I attended the draft Fire Operations Plan community
consultation meeting to hear how the plan would be
implemented, and I also co-ordinated the response to DSE
on behalf of the Anglesea Heath Consultative Committee. We
had some changes that we wanted to make to the plan. DSE
listened to our reasoning for these changes, and some were
included in the plan.
Tell me a little about the Anglesea Heath Consultative
Committee.
The committee is made up of representatives from Alcoa,
Parks Victoria, ANGAIR, Deakin University, and Surf Coast
Shire. The committee works to conserve the Anglesea Heath
and deals with any issues that arise which affect the Heath.
...LISA MILLS