Q. What is the Soil and Organic Recycling Facility?

A. The primary function of the Soil and Organic Recycling Facility is to prepare composted material using organic wastes and contaminated soils. This compost material will then be available for reuse as a soil conditioner at Dutson Downs or made available for third party use.

Some of these soils and organic wastes are currently received at Dutson Downs for treatment and disposal (eg contaminated soils from former petrol stations)

Q. What will the facility look like?

A. The facility will consist of a building with a concrete floor. This building will hold the waste storage bays and above ground tanks. The wastes will be unloaded in the building and stored until processing.

The vessels to be used for composting will be located in a separate building which will also be roofed and have a concrete floor.

Once the wastes have been treated in the vessels it will then be taken outdoors and stored in windrows on a clay pad. Here the material will be turned and further composting will be allowed to occur.

Q. Where exactly will the facility be located?  

A. The Soil and Organic Recycling Facility will be located within the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) at Dutson Downs. This is located 20km Southeast of Sale and consists of 250 hectares of land currently set aside for waste management under the existing EPA waste discharge licence. The RRF occupies approximately 3% of the total area of Dutson Downs that is managed by Gippsland Water.

Q. What types of soil and organic material will be taken to Dutson Downs?

A. There are a range of contaminated sites throughout Gippsland. These sites include:  

• former gas works
• cattle dips
• disused service stations
• industrial sites.

Organic waste include:

• food wastes
• scallop shells
• green waste
• dairy filter cake
• biosolids
• grease trap wastes.
  

Q. When will contaminate soils start arriving at Dutson Downs?  

A. Dutson Downs has been receiving organic wastes and some contaminated soils at the facility in accordance with the EPA licence for treatment and disposal. 

Q. How much soil and organic material will be taken to Dutson Downs?

A. It is expected that stage one of the Soil and Organic Recycling Facility will treat 2000 tonnes per year of soil and 13000 tonnes per year of organic wastes. Gippsland Water currently receives approximately 10,000 tonnes per year of soil and organic waste at Dutson Downs.

Q. What is the works approval process?

A. Gippsland Water submitted an application to the EPA to construct and operate a soil and organic recycling facility. This application process allowed the community to provide written submissions to EPA outlining their concerns.

The EPA requires at least four months to assess the application against the state policies, guidelines and regulations. This process determined that Gippsland Water could proceed with the development at Dutson Downs.