Woodlawn Eco Precinct

Community updates

Veolia has received approval to operate on Good Friday (29 March 2024). Local residents can expect the activities occurring onsite at the Eco-Precinct and the Crisps Creek Intermodal Facility to be consistent with a normal weekday, which includes operating hours of 6am to 10pm, and traffic conditions consistent with the normal vehicle traffic from the Intermodal Facility to the Eco-Precinct. Please submit any feedback through the form at the bottom of this page.

Woodlawn Eco Precinct

The Woodlawn Eco Precinct is Veolia’s 6,000ha site located approximately 50km north of Canberra and comprises several facilities, including:

Bioreactor landfill - a municipal solid waste landfill in which liquids are added to help bacteria break down the waste, actively capturing and extracting gas to recover energy. To date, 8.5 million tonnes of waste have been safely processed
BioEnergy plant - recovering clean energy generated by the waste in the Bioreactor.
Agriculture - incorporating a working farm that applies nutrient and grazing rotation to help sustainably manage the site.
Aquaculture and horticulture - capturing waste heat from energy production and using it for sustainable fish farming and hydroponic horticulture. 3600 kg of fish are produced annually and sold to the Canberra restaurant market
Mechanical and Biological Treatment - (MBT) extracting organic content from the waste to produce compost for environmental rehabilitation.
A Wind Farm - (operated by Infigen Energy) that harnesses 48.3 megawatts of clean energy per year.
A Solar Farm- utilising increased sun exposure from cleared land to produce 2.5 megawatts of clean energy per year.

Provide feedback to the Community Liaison Committee

The Woodlawn Community Liaison Committee (CLC) is a voluntary group of representatives who work to ensure the views and values of their community members are being taken into consideration for the operations at the Woodlawn Eco Precinct. The group meets once a quarter at the Precinct to listen to operational updates and share feedback from the community for Veolia to take into consideration.

We value community participation, and are always looking for ways to improve our involvement with local residents. If you have a question or feedback you'd like to be raised at the next CLC meeting, please fill out this form.

Contact our team

To provide feedback or talk to a member of the team please call 1800 241 750 during business hours, or 0427 319 881 after hours. You can also email us at [email protected] or complete the feedback form below.

Veolia takes environmental compliance extremely seriously and works closely with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to resolve any matters that arise. You can read more about this on the EPA's website here.

Environmental Audit Reports

Woodlawn Bioreactor Environmental Audit Reports

Woodlawn MBT Environmental Audit Reports

Odour Audit Reports

AEPR's & AEMR's

Woodlawn Annual Environmental Performance Reports

Woodlawn Eco-Precinct Annual Environmental Management Reports

Woodlawn LEMP and MBT Management Plans

Woodlawn Landfill Environmental Management Plan

MBT Operational Environmental Management Plan

Pollution Incident Response Management Plan

Statutory Approvals

Woodlawn Bioreactor Development Consent

Woodlawn Bioreactor Project Approval

MBT

CLC Charter & Meeting Minutes

Community Liaison Committee presentations & updates

Community Liaison Committee meeting minutes

Woodlawn Community Newsletters

Woodlawn Community Newsletters

2024

Veolia Woodlawn Monthly Newsletter - March 2024

2023

2022

Veolia Woodlawn Monthly Newsletter - September 2022
Veolia Woodlawn Monthly Newsletter - June 2022
Veolia Woodlawn Monthly Newsletter - May 2022
Veolia Woodlawn Monthly Newsletter - March 2022

Woodlawn Complaints Registers

2024

2023

2022

H2S Monitoring

As part of our commitment to the community and New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (NSW EPA), Veolia has established an ambient air quality monitoring surveillance system designed to provide real-time feedback on the presence of hydrogen sulphide (H2S). H2S is a colourless but odorous gas (with a rotten egg-like smell) that would be readily detectable by the majority of the Australian population at very low concentration levels. To understand how good the human nose is at detecting H2S, Veolia received advice from a leading odour consulting company that indicated that the lowest detection threshold on record in Australia has been as low as 3 parts per billion (ppm) or 0.003 parts per million (ppm). With this in mind, it is important to understand that many sources can release H2S, which can include human-made (anthropogenic) or natural (from the environment). It is interesting to note that the human body is also a regular contributor of H2S release in the environment and that it is an essential material in many industrial processes.

To provide the community with feedback on the ambient H2S levels in the local area, Veolia has installed multiple AcrulogTM units to regularly monitor the presence and concentration levels. The Acrulog units are sourced from an Australian company that specialises in portable wireless environmental gas data loggers. The Acrulog units set up in the local community are highly specialised instruments designed to specifically target and measure H2S within a measurement range of 0-2,000 ppb or 0-2 ppm. The effectiveness of these units at targeting H2S at this very low range has meant that it is regularly adopted by government authorities, consultants, and private industries as an environmental management tool.

To obtain a better understanding as to how low these concentration levels are in practice, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) indicates that the time-weighted average (TWA) over 8 hours (that is, the average time an individual will spend at work) for H2S in an occupational setting is 10,000 ppb or 10 ppm. This is 3,334 times above the lowest detection limit by the human nose of an average person in Australia (3 ppb or 0.003 ppm). By comparison, the short-term exposure limit (STEL) – the acceptable concentration level of H2S exposure in an occupational setting for 15 minutes - is 15,000 ppb or 15 ppm. In other words, your nose is very good at picking up H2S at very low levels and well below the accepted limits published NIOSH. Based on these accepted limits and the current state of knowledge, any H2S levels reported below the NIOSH values are not expected to result in a dose-response relationship that can lead to a physical human health impact risk – that is, values below these limits would be considered a safe place to work in an occupational setting. With this in mind, the installed Acrulog units can detect H2S levels that are significantly below the safe work limits established by NIOSH, making them highly-sensitive instruments.

Given that there are many human-made and natural sources of H2S (such as vehicle transport, decaying vegetative matter, septic tanks, sewage, and aged garbage), a positive detection and concentration reading from the Acrulog units does not necessarily mean that our operations at the Woodlawn Eco-Precinct are the source. To establish this connection, Veolia would require additional data, contextualisation, and the investigation and guidance of experts to establish such a connection. Therefore, the feedback provided by the Acrulog units should be regarded as a tool to create an enhanced level of community awareness of H2S levels in the local area. Veolia hopes this real-time ambient air quality monitoring surveillance system feedback page for H2S is beneficial to the community.

Locations

Veolia Eco-Precinct (Point 9)

Tarago Recreation Area (Point 71)

Tarago Showground (Point 72)

NOTE: Please be advised of the following matters related to the monitoring network:

* Be advised that H2S reported results of 0 refers to a potential reading below the limit of reporting, which means below the detectable level of 3ppb.

* In order for live data from our monitoring network to be accessed, an integration method is used which changes the data from digital to analogue back to digital in order for it to be transferred. As a result it is expected that the results will often be reported as decimals.

Other Reports

For other reports relating to the Woodlawn Bioreactor, please refer to our reports page.

Share your feedback

Select your type of feedback

Date and time of odour observation

Location of odour

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Submit a question(s)

Please enter your question. This will be raised in the next CLC meeting.

Please provide your feedback below

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Odour Intensity

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Contact Details

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Any other comments?

Action

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For media and press enquiries contact:
Valeria Cheglov, Head of Communications and Public Policy | [email protected]

Get in Touch

Woodlawn Eco Precinct

Community updates

Woodlawn Eco Precinct

Provide feedback to the Community Liaison Committee

Contact our team

Environmental Audit Reports

Odour Audit Reports

AEPR's & AEMR's

Woodlawn LEMP and MBT Management Plans

Statutory Approvals

CLC Charter & Meeting Minutes

Woodlawn Community Newsletters

Woodlawn Complaints Registers

2024

2023

2022

H2S Monitoring

Locations

Other Reports

Share your feedback

Contact Details

Action

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