Lonsdale and Hallett Cove

The EPA is investigating odour reported to be coming from the Lonsdale Precinct and encourages community members to please fill out odour diaries to assist our investigations (please visit the EPA website and download a diary from the section ‘Reporting odour nuisance’).

The EPA acknowledges that the Lonsdale Precinct is an industrial area and a number of businesses could be the source of the odours.

We need your help, as various types of odour profiles have been described to the EPA on different occasions and under different weather conditions.

On 20 October 2020, the EPA hosted a community workshop to discuss the findings of the 12 month study, with Dr Pushan Shah explaining the predominant sources of dust during this period. Dr Monika Nitschke from SA Health presented a health analysis of the data that the study had obtained, and Jim Fairweather from ResourceCo presented on the work it has done to progress landscaping improvements and dust mitigation measures at that site. Please see the document library to view the presentations.

Recent dust sightings

The EPA continues to monitor the data from our dust monitors and anemometres, and thanks to a heads up from some community members was able to do an unannounced inspection of the work being undertaken on the Meyer Road bridge. On 26 March 2020 dust was observed coming from activities that could have been suppressed if dust control measures were in place. We informed the Principal Environmental Advisor at the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, who advised he would follow this up with the workers involved. Please do continue to keep us informed.

Cleanaway application to add an activity to it's licence

Cleanaway on Liston Rd Lonsdale has applied to add 'waste reprocessing' to its EPA licence #50318, to allow it to crush and sort the inert construction and demolition material it already receives. In 2000 this site was approved to receive and crush concrete as part of the development approval, but when Cleanaway took over the site this wasn't transferred to the licence.

As part of this process, Cleanaway is updating its Environment Management Plan to cover aspects such as dust. If approval is granted they will also be required by licence condition to produce and have approved a Recovered Products Plan. This will include the methodology, testing, and environmental controls for material produced specifically relating to this process. Compliance can then strictly be in accordance with an approved method for crushing and sorting.

Green and organic waste processing is currently the main activity at this site, so it is likely that crushing of concrete would be infrequent. If you have any questions, or would like to make a submission to be taken into consideration, please don't hesitate to contact us on 08 8204 2004 or email engage.epa@sa.gov.au. Formal submissions closed 5pm Tuesday, 12 May 2020.

The EPA's Lonsdale and Hallett Cove dust study team wishes you a very Merry Christmas and thanks you for your participation over the last six months.

Please see the following new items on the engage.epa.sa.gov.au website:

• Workshop 4 presentation
• Community photo gallery
• Community video gallery

As we head into a very dry summer, the EPA would like to encourage you to please keep sending your photos and videos through to engage.epa@sa.gov.au and drop pins on our ‘MAKE AN ONLINE DUST REPORT’ with the specific information such as the date, time and location.

The next community workshop is being held:

Wednesday 11 December 2019, 6–8 pm

The Cove Civic Centre

Ragamuffin Drive, Hallett Cove

We will present the findings from the monitoring network so far, the online dust reporting tool and welcome back special guest Dr Monika Nitschke, who will be available to answer questions on dust and your health.

At our weekly look-ahead meeting this week, we identified that the dust monitor on Freebairn Drive had stopped providing data which was likely due to a power black-out on Friday night. We visited the monitor on Monday and reset the device, which is now working properly. Meteorological conditions indicate that Tuesday afternoon and evening is likely to be dusty and windy, and we will undertake a proactive site visit to monitor conditions. The rest of the week looks relatively mild.

The EPA's dust study team commenced weekly meetings on 28 October 2019, to look at the weather conditions for the week ahead to plan pro-active site visits.

As the result of a pin being dropped on Meyer Road by a member of the public on 8 November, EPA staff visited to investigate the complaint which stated that the “Road is full of dirt which will get blown around”.

At the time of the inspection, there was only a small amount of dry residue in the gutter and ResourceCo’s street sweeper had been mobilised in accordance with EPA requirements.

This was a great opportunity for the EPA to investigate a sighting of potential dust before it became an issue, and the EPA encourages community members to continue to report perpetrators and potential sources of dust lift off.

If you witness dust coming from a specific site or location, please submit the details and send it in as soon as possible after the event.

The EPA has letterbox dropped residents in Hallett Cove and Lonsdale, to encourage the reporting of dust incidents at the time of their occurrence. Dust incidents can be reported using our new online dust reporting tool, or by requesting a hard copy form to complete and fill out.

Community input is a vital component of this study. To make a report, please record everything that you can remember about the event including: date and time, the exact location, and other observations such as weather conditions. Where possible, photographic and video evidence can be provided and are valuable especially from different angles. Please ensure date and times are accurate on your device. This information will complement proactive site visits by EPA staff, and the information provided by the live data being produced by community based dust monitors installed on 15 August 2019.

The next community workshop will be held on Wednesday 11 December 2019, and existing and new members are welcome to attend (further information to come). A ‘HOW TO’ GUIDE, and all previous community updates and workshop presentations is available from our 'Document Library'.

We are pleased to announce that the air quality data is now live, and available from this website (please see 'Important links').

EPA staff will be monitoring the data and measuring it against local and regional dust events. If you have a question, please consider posting it to the Q & A page, so that it can be shared with the community.

The 3rd community workshop featured a presentation on how to interpret the data, and participants were asked whether or not the layout was community friendly and easy to understand. As a result, some tweaks to the dashboard presentation has been made.

To see a copy of the presentation, please see the 'Document Library'.

The next community workshop will feature an analysis of the data captured to date, and is currently being planned to be held at the end of this month.

The 2nd community workshop was held on 29 July 2019. Many thanks to Dr Monika Nitschke from SA Health for attending and answering residents' questions about dust and their health. Please see the 'Document Library' for a copy of the presentation.

After the installation of the dust monitors, and the publishing of the real-time data to the website, the EPA is planning on holding its 3rd community workshop during September.