The excavation of chemically contaminated soil and sediment during remediation works creates an environment that requires monitoring for health and safety reasons.
On a daily basis, specialist consultants undertake environmental monitoring at the excavation face, at special facilities on site, at project boundaries and in the community. The program focuses on maintaining the health of project workers as well as the health of the local population. It includes air quality, odour and noise monitoring.
The objective of the monitoring is to demonstrate compliance with the strict environmental licence standards set for each project. Accumulated data is compiled in a monthly report that is submitted to the government regulator, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC).
Environmental monitoring data is also presented to the Rhodes Community Consultative Committee and some of these graphs are available on this website.
Thiess Services has engaged the professional services of Parsons Brinkerhoff, one of Australia’s leading environmental consultancies, to undertake the environmental monitoring (see http://www.pb.com.au/).
A meteorological monitoring station has also been installed on the Lednez site to help identify local weather patterns which may adversely impact environmental conditions or remediation works. The weather is continuously monitored and a real-time readout of data is provided. This assists project team members with environmental management and operations planning.