Submission on the EPA’s Compost and Related Organics Processing Guidelines

AEBN’s submission calls for recognition for the beneficial use of inert waste materials in composts and other organic materials used for soil conditioning. Currently the draft guidelines only address the organic materials considered for use in a compost mix. However, many composts use inert bulking agents. AEBN recommended that use of concentration limits, risk assessments and a combination of other factors be permitted to be used for assessing composts using waste materials for beneficial use.

AEBN also called on the EPA to develop a range of guidelines and polices to enhance the beneficial use of a wide spectrum of industrially derived wastes.

18 Catchment Blueprints have been prepared for most of the major catchments across NSW. AEBN is mainly concerned over two of these documents, which set a whole of government approach to managing catchments in the future. A major issue with the Sydney Harbour and the Southern Sydney Catchment Blueprint is they define riparian buffer zones as requiring a minimum 20 metres each side of a watercourse. Water course is also very broadly defined and would impact on many industrial lands in the Sydney area. While all Blueprints have actions requiring the improvement of riparian zones, it is only these two that clearly defined the extent of a riparian zone. AEBN called for the unprecedented definition to be modified to remove the references to distances. The submission also called for a grandfather clause on existing developments and flexibility in the application of the action agenda of the Blueprints.

 

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