Goulburn waste facility operator told to urgently reduce dam wastewater

The operator of a waste facility outside Goulburn has been told to take urgent action to reduce the levels of wastewater in its dams to reduce the risk of polluting the nearby environment and community.

On Tuesday (8 October), the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said it had issued Veolia Environmental Services with a clean-up notice to reduce the levels of leachate stored in dams at the Woodlawn Landfill in the Woodlawn Eco Precinct at Tarago.

These dams store leachate, or wastewater, generated from landfill operations.

“Some of these leachate dams are reaching storage capacity increasing the potential risk of an offsite overflow event,” an EPA spokesperson said.

The EPA’s acting executive director of operations, Adam Gilligan, said it was critical Veolia took urgent action to reduce its leachate dam levels to prevent a potential risk of pollution into nearby creeks and the community.

“Maintaining adequate storage capacity ensures dam integrity and prevents uncontrolled discharges of polluted water which can cause serious environmental impacts that can be difficult and costly to clean up,” he said.

“It is important Veolia takes immediate action to reduce their levels of leachate stored at the site to ensure they do not breach their licence and cause an offsite overflow.

“We have directed Veolia to take a number of immediate actions including transporting quantities of leachate to a lawful facility, installing storage tanks and investigating leachate-reduction technology.”

Mr Gilligan said the EPA would monitor Veolia’s actions to ensure they are implemented.

The EPA spokesperson said Veolia proposed installing storage tanks, while the EPA initiated the remaining directions to provide additional safeguards until storage capacity returned to safe levels.

A spokesperson for Veolia said the clean-up notice meant the company could better manage liquid onsite through wet weather periods.

“Veolia is mobilising very quickly to construct several temporary tanks capable of storing 40.5 ML of liquid,” the Veolia spokesperson said.

“This should allow enough redundancy to manage the current situation, while we build more permanent water treatment and storage options.

“However, the EPA has also required Veolia transport 150,000L of leachate offsite each day.”

The Veolia spokesperson said higher-than-average rainfall around Woodlawn since 2020 had seen its on-site water management operating at near capacity.

“In order to comply with our commitments as a zero discharge site, Veolia proactively took steps to increase our evaporation capacity, build new storage dams, deploy temporary storage bladders, and obtain emergency permissions for temporary treated leachate storage tanks to prevent overflows,” the spokesperson said.

“Over the past three years we have proactively engaged independent experts and have been working closely with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to find additional water management solutions that are allowed within the parameters of our complex operating licences.”

In September 2024, EPA CEO Tony Chappel went to Woodlawn for detailed discussions about these issues.

“We also presented a number of viable solutions to further manage the water, including building internally lined steel or concrete water storage tanks, and a reverse osmosis facility that supports water reuse onsite,” the Veolia spokesperson said.

In July 2024, the EPA fined Veolia $30,000 after it failed to comply with the conditions of the environment protection licence at its mechanical biological treatment facility at Woodlawn.

During the same month, it was announced amendments were needed for the plans to Veolia ANZ’s proposed waste incinerator, or Advanced Energy Recovery Centre facility, near the site.