Situations where Victorian EPA or DSE Policy have Let you down !

Discussion in 'Environmental and Health Professionals Interested' started by Callum EHO, Aug 7, 2011.

  1. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    1. Greywater Reuse
    EPA suggesting that grey water treatment systems returning water for toilet flushing is not discharging to the environment therefore is not the EPA responsibility or the responsibility of Council. The reality is that if something goes wrong with the system or its installation then this can soon become an environmental and a health hazard. By EPA shirking their responsibility they are asking for others to duplicate the EPA's expertise and monitoring powers. The same goes for the operation of pump-out septic tank systems, previously not approved in Victoria but it is increasingly unclear about what EPA’s opinion is on these systems - seeing they are starting to be approved at some VCAT cases!

    1. Cumulative Environmental Impact
    Guidance on assessment of cumulative impact – The EPA need to be clear about what they require to assess for cumulative impact of proposed new unsewered developments and unsewered subdivisions. – Example - impact on groundwater in unsewered areas.

    1. Building Renewal, Addition and Subdivision in Unsewered Towns
    Old townships are artificially being held back from renewal and new development because of offsite discharge conditions requiring dilution that are unachievable. The only dilution in some cases is caused by other people’s untreated grey water?

    1. Containment Of All Wastewater On Site
    Then there is also the requirement to contain all wastewater on site when in fact wastewater will always eventually leave a site, can not be viably held under all unfavourable use and climatic conditions (because every affordable system has some limit of operation) and some slow leaching of salts is always needed or salt accumulates.

    1. Site Drainage Issues
    There are drainage issues such as groundwater springs that move and can affect some sites and there does not appear to be any way to resolve this simple technical problem under the policy. The policy and the way it has been interpreted sometimes has been very misleading. It implies some things can be done without providing for the financial support or powers needed for practical implementation – eg- Domestic Wastewater Management Plans.

    1. Renewal of Buildings After Bushfire
    The State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) policy problems really showed up when trying to rebuild the septic tank systems in bushfire affected towns. Building Safety and Fire Safety Issues were retrospectively all changed but for some reason assisting these vulnerable residents with the best information about the logical choice of options was not or could not be provided. In the near future the compromises are going to become real problems for the residents and authorities as public health and environmental issues start to surface on blocks too small and with systems providing inadequate treatment at significantly more expense than previous systems.

    1. EPA Underestimation of Wastewater Flow Rates
    The current policy makes it hard to define over development and the requirements to provide for reserve wastewater dispersal fields has been dropped in the recent reviews of the Code of Practice so the intent of the SEPP will be met less often and far more difficult to achieve in some situations because of removal of this safety buffer.
    Testing compliance with the policy has been difficult in the past because of only spot laboratory testing being available. Misleading assessments in the past have created real nightmares and problems that are difficult to prove and resolve. There are new electronic forms of onsite analysis that could be made available but the EPA did not appear interested in supporting the uptake of these new problem detecting but also problem solving technologies. Not every Council can afford these or know when they will need them but if they were held at EPA regional offices then they could be very handy and useful and deter substandard practice.

    1. Clarity about where Environment Protection Legislation Stops and Public Health and Wellbeing Act Legislation Begins
    Some specific offences associated with household wastewater need to be established so that authorities are not forced to try and use Public Health and Wellbeing Act remedies to resolve an Environment Protection Act issue.

    Other issues such as odour assessment methods and nuisance issues when associated with Environmental Protection Policy must be clearly defined so as not to undermine professional credibility and reputation of agencies. (Obvious Cattle Feedlot odour is a classic example.)
     
  2. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Useful Trade Diagrams have be Disappearing out of EPA Literature

    Rather than just slabs of text, there needs to be better use of diagrams, flowcharts, computer animations and presentations and videos on various topics and for various situations. These have all been gradually disappearing from EPA documents and only experts knew where the essential parts were. Many residents and tradespeople are not making well informed decisions and consequently reputations and the environment are suffering. (Example the household greywater flowchart !)



    There are legal issues and complexity to these problems but these should not be allowed to overwhelm the functionality of the communication process. In some cases it is only academics that understand some of the concepts, they don’t impart them and the local service providers start making big mistakes.

    10. Privatisation of Common Sense

    Such heavy reliance on Australian Standards has now resulted in fragmentation of documents and considerable expense for anyone wanting to double check a reference. There have been major delays and reference just comes back to experts without providing much structure.





    11. Where Limited Money is Better Set Aside For Sewer Extension than Major Septic Tank Upgrade

    In some situations the EPA needs to help mapping out of strategic off-sets which will help bring about a better gains for the environment in the long term. These are not easy to negotiate and there are risks but a framework to proceed with these needs to be established or the opportunities are lost and the problems get far worse.



    12. Wilful Blindness

    There are rising cases of “Wilful Blindness” where authorities and management claim that they did not realise how bad situations were but this is no legal defence if they clearly should have known.



    13. Burning of Silage Wrap

    Why is it that Silage Wrap is allowed to stockpile and burn so well when this is clearly an irresponsible means of disposal?



    14. Bird Scare Guns

    Some Council’s have had to draw on guidelines from interstate because the local policy and guidelines was not sufficient for their needs.



    15. Legal Points of Discharge That Can No Longer Be Constructed

    Off-site Discharges and Legal Points of Discharge that don’t exist or can no longer be constructed.

    Numerous Council have these situations created many decades ago and there is no clear guidance about how these situation might be able to be addressed.



    16. EPA Certificates of Approval Withdrawn

    What to do to fix systems no longer approved by EPA for new installation but that residents have permits to still operate. In other situations poor quality wastewater treatment technology is still EPA certified does not adequately treat wastewater even when the system had just been recently serviced.



    17. Reality Check

    There are obvious government initiatives and technical changes that policy has not kept up with such as recycling provisions for old televisions and computer screens, florescent lights and mobile phones. Deterioration of the environment such as littering, smog, noise and other polluting discharges needs to be controlled. It is important that young people can see improvements and wide spread improvements in practices happening or all the good things they learn in school are undermined and lost. There are some places that the EPA has clearly lost the war in the past and these need some effort to regain. There are some keystone legal and technical solutions that could be utilised but many EPA staff appear very disillusioned.



    These above case study situations are counter productive to EPA’s reputation and the reputation of the policies.



    Test the Impact of any Policy Amendments or new Policy on the following situations outlined below but also test in the failure situations outlined above.



    - Small Run Down Unsewered Towns

    - Impact on Unsewered Neighbourhoods on the edge of sewered towns

    - Impact on Farmers

    - New Subdivisions Adjacent to Unsewered Properties with Discharges



    Make Sure the Support Structures are In Place Before Imposing Policy and Regulation



    Make sure the right legal, financial and technical structures are in place before commencing these or they become counter productive. Forcing Local Councils to carry out compliance checks on EPA approved devices that were expensive but were failing more often than not is not very sustainable. The quality of Land Capability Assessments and plumbing skills have deteriorated in recent times because of a lack of compliance checks and ongoing training at professional levels.



    If EPA just sees its role as very narrow then EPA is going to become irrelevant and other agencies and organisations are going to have to uphold some standards.



    We pretty much only have one environmentally friendly future to choose from. If the EPA can not facilitate this in conjunction with other EPA’s around the world then everything else we do on earth to try and uphold quality of life is going to be pretty much pointless.
     
  3. JasonEHO

    JasonEHO Junior Member

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    So what i think Callum is asking for is other instances of where the EPA's policy has let you down so if you have any post them up. I'm lucky enough to have minimal dealings with the EPA so far so haven't got anything to add!
     
  4. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Well arn't you lucky !

    Well done on proving you can use this forum though !

    I reckon it is just a matter of time because cities as they stand are going to need to make very big transitions to be sustainable but to help facilitate this many EHO's are going to need backup !

    You just never know when a gastro case might be traced back to poor installation or maintenance of a greywater system !

    Do you get any noise complaints about home entertainment systems?

    Any air quality, asbestos issues?

    Some food contamination issues may also have an environmental source.

    Do you ever get any planning referals from your planning department aimed at reducing risk of complaints arising from new developments?
     
  5. adrians

    adrians Junior Member

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    Where are you going with this? a campaign against being able to use grey water?
     
  6. JasonEHO

    JasonEHO Junior Member

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    No, Not at all. The epa is currently looking at updating its guidelines on this and other issues and we're looking for examples to help. I'll let callum explain in more detail.
     
  7. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Greywater

    No most of us are for practical reuse of greywater.

    The big issue is when greywater is badly managed and allowed to pool, run into stormwater, run onto other peoples property, damage or de-stabilise neighbours trees, contaminate gardens, grow mosquitos or contaminating birds, insects and rodents that end up transporting contaminants back into houses and water tanks. In some places it can cause land slides or ground water contamination. It might sound far fetched but the problems are on the increase and EHO's as one of the lines of the public's protection against idiots needs a few basic support on practically how to handle these.

    It is amazing how many people literally flood their neighbours yard, dog and kids with greywater and think they are doing the right thing by the environment !
    It is crook when you have to threaten legal action to protect a neighbour !
    The Environment Protection Act should have clear penalties for dealing with these situations but instead there is now reliance on nuisance provisions in other legislation that is far less specific and clear to enforce.

    There are some very expensive greywater treatment systems in the city used for toilets and garden watering. Sometimes these systems are not serviced properly or plumbing is altered causing connections to drinking water supply with big gastro outbreaks - this has happened.

    The shortfall of EPA is saying no permit or even basic notification is required for these very complicated treatment systems so health authorities don't know where they are or if they are being maintained.
     
  8. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    18. Who Interprets the EPA’s Roles and Responsibilities

    The EPA do not work in accordance with their legislation in many instances.
    The EPA often decide to interpret their own responsibilities and decide when to pass these on to Local Government.
    With the exception of domestic wastewater component certification, the EPA are the regulating and enforcing body for offences under the Act but will fob off situations to Local Govt. to deal with under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act (which has become even harder than it was because it is not specific enough to deal with environmental offences and health impact is far more difficult to measure.)
    A simple amendment to the Act authorising Local Govt. EHOs to undertake enforcement would enable Council’s to use the appropriate legislation or else the EPA must be resourced to do it all as the Act requires.

    19. Temporary Wastewater Management at Public Events

    In relation to Wastewater the EPA are the Certifying body for all treatment systems with a daily flow in excess of 5,000 l/day but have mangled the code and adopted a policy that puts the onus on Local Govt in relation to public gatherings that are greatly in excess of this figure.
    Acts override codes etc and therefore takes precedence where there is a conflict. The EPA also appear to be looking to remove Certification for sand filters because there isn't anyone to sue in regard to the design. Given Sand Filters are the most effective and cost efficient systems for providing secondary treatment this is nothing short of madness. Sand Filter Design has been in the public domain and free for decades. Privatisation has already happened for Reed Beds approvals which used to be a great way of dealing with effluent on restricted sites.
    Other complex situations such as temporary wastewater arrangements for public events should be an EPA responsibility. The EPA are refusing to give advice on what guidelines Council should apply, presumably so they can avoid any liability but it is a fundamental public duty the State has.
    20. Public Water Supplies on DSE land with no Managers
    There are buildings on DSE land available to the public using a private water supply and DSE has no management program for them. This is another gap in responsibility where illness is difficult to prevent and gastro outbreak investigations become needlessly frustrating and complicated.

    21. Motorcycle and Car Racing Noise

    We have a major regional and state significant motorcycle tracks around Victoria.
    The tracks have operated under existing use rights for nearly 50 years but residents have raised concerns around the increase usage of the facilities and potential impacts this may have i.e. noise, dust, camping and litter etc. There may be VCAT hearings on the future uses of the facilities however if clear EPA guidelines existed then matters may not need to go to VCAT.

    Councils have assisted in arranging noise assessments and to have a noise management plan developed for the site. A part of the development of the noise management plan it was found there was no adequate EPA Victoria policy on motorcycle noise and our consultant sourced a use NSW document for creating a draft noise management methodology. Advice was sought from the EPA regarding the draft methodology which was supported so why could not EPA prepare these appropriate local guidelines to start with?

    22. What happened to the Precautionary Principle?

    EP Act contains the Precautionary principle, but the current Onsite Wastewater Management Code of Practice and the new draft seem to have ignored this valuable concept. EPA appear reluctant to do works orders for large septic tank systems, as they will palm them off to Council if the flow rates
    are below 10000Lts by the water bills, but most EHO's have little experience of systems bigger than domestic or small commercial sized units.

    23. The EPA Regional Offices in the Country

    Some Councils have issues with the EPA regional office unwilling to investigate noise issues and will only investigate when industrial noise / odour is affecting residential houses and then only grudgingly. In the city the EPA deal with any issues from industry, but in the Country they won't. This seems very unfair and if these offices are not being properly resourced then they should be.

    24. Lack of Guidance

    There is a lack of EPA guidance on dealing with opportunity to upgrade existing sub-standard systems where compliance with current codes cannot be achieved but there is opportunity to upgrade to better than what exists. A lack of guidance from EPA on status and conditions around use of Pump-out systems. A lack of legislation to require regular maintenance of old septic tank systems where this detail was not included in original or non-existent septic tank permits. The is an apparent lack of science around the area of groundwater protection leading to a secondary treated back up system requiring a 50m set back from bores (proposed in draft guidelines). (Probably because the EPA are not confident the systems the EPA approves for this purpose are not up to the task.)
     
  9. Jeremy Draper

    Jeremy Draper New Member

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    A couple that spring to mind

    1. With regards to Greywater re-use. The Septic Code of practice makes it clear that you can NOT divert grey water without a permit and an expensive system...and yet other publications from the EPA give advice on how to divert grey water and provide some circumstances. It is inconsistent and confusing for most people.

    2. There a numerous wastewater systems capable of achieving high effluent standards (10/10/10 or better) yet under the legislation and codes there is no incentive other than a personal 'feel good' factor to actually install these types of system. The EPA who are meant to be pushing for and promoting a better environment need to provide clear reasons and benefits for people to use higher quality systems.

    3. There is an assumption out in the community that AWT systems are better than a conventional septic system and more environmentally friendly. Recently the EPA have required companies to put power usage on the Certificates of Approval which helps people understand that there are cost over time with AWTs. However, I don't believe this goes far enough. If we are serious about the environment then we need to look at the impacts and the carbon footprint of systems of the entire expected lifespan. This would help people make truly informed decisions about the impact they choose to make on the environment.
     
  10. Swinburne Wee Jasper

    Swinburne Wee Jasper New Member

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    I agree with Jeremy.

    In the ACT there are too many things done in the name of sustainability but which have enormous carbon foot prints which have gone unconsidered.

    eg We have a new large dam 340 million being built below Canberra. The water has to be pumped up hill to be used. It was entirely feasible to put the dam higher up and generate electricity from the outflows (NB Im all for dams in the appropriate place and at the appropriate cost finacial and environmental ).

    This dam was justified as it would only cost $100 million in 2008 come 2010 the estimate before start was raised to $340 million.
    Now the same company has been given the go ahead to add a tunnel to another large dam in the Snowy mountains which is only 5 to 10% full in summers. None of the extensive public consultation talked about the carbon foot print. Given ACT has a newish department of sustanability it is becoming apparent that sustainabilty is being used for political reasons and not real environmental outcomes in the ACT.

    Patick EHO
     
  11. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Welcome Pat,

    "Cash for clunkers" rather than "cash for electro retrofits" - there are lots of examples.
    Compact flouro light bulb exchange - free from the power company but on the proviso the old still functioning bulbs were taken away and destroyed before they had failed.
    You can't tell me the impact of an existing bulb is going to have more impact than what it costs to start using a compact flouro globe about a year earlier than they need to be and failing a year earlier than they need to. This is particularly frustrating considering no local service is provided for proper disposal of compact globes so all the mercury goes to landfill. Something fishy? "Transition Towns" are going to be very different places in the future compared to what we live in now and maybe they will get it right !
     
  12. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Welcome Jeremy,

    Interesting that EPA used to require secondary treated and chlorinated household wastewater to be staked out with two large warning signs.
    At the same time greywater untreated and freshly contaminated is allowed to spew out anywhere, without any notification of neighbours or authorities in the hope it will be properly managed. When it all goes wrong then it is assumed local Council EHO's will be able to manage the problem using the nuisance provisions of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act, local laws or by private legal action between neighbours !

    In some places and locations greywater reuse is totally inappropriate - eg sandy soils with very shallow groundwater relied on as a water supply.

    I am a big supporter of greywater reuse however the EPA need to put some proper effort into working out some practical designs and guidelines for people to follow that are not going to lead creation of more environmental, public health and administrative problems than this sloppy policy resolves.

    I have a new greywater mound design I am working that might be able to be put out there for the public some time with some good support info.
     
  13. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Evidently the noise from frost motors in orchards is causing some noise nuisance complaints. Like windfarms - we are not saying this is right or wrong - just that proper guidelines on resolution of these types of disputes needs to be in place.
     
  14. adrians

    adrians Junior Member

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    sounds like someone has a barrow to push.
    Is the answer bigger government? More rules? More supervision? More surveilance?
     
  15. Callum EHO

    Callum EHO Junior Member

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    Management of wastewater is one of the most essential elements of quality of life in any society. There are responsibilities, liabilities and risks associated with any management of pollution and a certain amount of education that is needed. I did not say anything about big government, if we could be smarter with our policies and processes then maybe we could get away with smaller government but the challenges have never been greater. Hopefully some of us can convince you permaculture might be integral to a better outcome !
     

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