Tate Papworth
Work to extinguish underground fires at the Kealba Landfill began last week, more than seven months after the issue was first discovered.
The site’s operators Barro Group wrote to residents earlier this month, advising them that remediation works on four “hotspots” within two of its cells would begin on June 15.
Under the plan, which has been approved by the EPA, “cool waste” will be transferred directly to other active cells at the landfill. When warm to hot waste is exposed, it will be doused with water, then excavated and moved to a specially constructed ‘laydown area’ within the site’s boundaries.
The impacted waste will be spread out in thin layers, doused again with water and allowed to cool for a minimum of 24 hours.
Once temperature assessments confirm the waste has cooled, it will be transferred to other active cells at the landfill.
The cooled waste will be placed in segregated zones to enable additional temperature monitoring and mitigate the risk of hotspots reforming.
While residents will be please to know the odour they’ve been exposed to for half a year could soon be a thing of the past, the site operators warn it could get worse before it gets better.
Barro says that as a result of the excavation method designed to uncover the fires, there could be increased odour around the site and the appearance of smoke and steam.
Barro says it has put an extensive program in place to monitor and report any such instances.
Air quality monitoring will continue throughout the remediation works and will remain in place for a period of time afterwards.
Last month the EPA slapped Barro Group with an $8261 fine for leaving hundreds of cubic metres of waste exposed overnight.
