Australasian Mining Review
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/26056
CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment technical report no.10 Health screening levels for petroleum hydrocarbons in soil and groundwater Summary for NEPC consultation E. Friebel and P. Nadebaum CRC CARE, with more than 250 researchers, is Australia’s largest and best networked research organisation dedicated to the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites. ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY: Winter 2010 a handbook for professionals managing contaminated land In this issue L. Heath, S.J.T. Pollard, S.E. Hrudey and G. Smith Engaging the community handbook 1 The Director’s Chair 2 Contribution to UN document on arsenic Risk Assessment Bridging maths and chemistry in sensor development Using the body’s early response to contamination as a signal Remediation Technologies Charactising sites impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons CRC CARE wins CRC STAR Award Prevention Technologies Revegetation - how do plants cope with toxic metals? Other Program News Social, Legal, Policy and Economic Issues Program China Program Demonstration Programs BHP Billiton Program Petroleum Program CleanUp 09 News and Events Adelaide as the centre of an Asia-Pacific clean up industry Training workshops Industry exhibits PhD student presents at national CRC conference Publications ARIC 10 10 10 11 11 12 7 7 8 8 9 6 4 4 CRC CARE delivers to NEPC 5 3 3 2 Remediator New handbook on engaging the community Communities affected by land contamination find the science and regulatory processes associated with risk management decisions problematic. The historic ‘decide-announce- defend’ philosophy offers few meaningful opportunities for community engagement, and people may often feel isolated from decisions. Assessments of risk that fail to consider issues important to the affected (or potentially affected) parties have little credibility, and usually no amount of ‘sales effort’ after the fact succeeds in persuading communities that they have nothing to worry about. The upshot of this lack of resolution can be a long and expensive period of repeated legal challenges, delays and lost opportunities. In collaboration with Cranfield University in the UK, the CRC has now produced ‘Engaging the community: a handbook for professionals managing contaminated land’. The 90-page document is in five parts, dealing with: 1. Principles of community engagement - ten are presented and discussed 2. International best practice in risk communication - examples are taken from the UK, the USA, Canada and Europe 3. Procedures expected under Australian law in various jurisdictions, and assistance and materials offered in support 4. Australian case studies with both good and poor outcomes 5. A structural framework for involving the public in environmental decision making. The aim of the handbook is not to replace existing guidelines, standards or codes, but to complement them by providing practitioner perspectives and practical guidance through each stage of community engagement. It covers an array of topics pertinent to professionals working in the field of site contamination and remediation. Methods are provided that enhance learning skills, confidence and professional development, and encourage organisational involvement in effective risk communication. Reference is also made to the research and practitioner literature and to other more general sources of guidance on effective community consultation. The readership of this guide is expected to include: ■ state and local authority officers, site planners and environment agencies ■ land owners, environmental consultants, contractors ■ others involved in the management of contaminated sites. A final draft of the document was reviewed at a workshop at CleanUp 09 in September 2009, and it was published in mid April 2010. For details see http://www.crccare.com/ working_with_industry/contaminated_sites_ handbook.html. Contact Roel Plant Program Leader UTS roel.plant@uts.edu.au Newsletter of the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment Its 24 partners include BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Department of Defence, the EPAs of South Australia and Victoria, Department of Environment and Conservation (WA), the Australian Institute of Petroleum, HLM Asia Group Ltd, 6 universities and 3 consultants. With 55 current research projects and 66 PhD students in Australia and China, CRC CARE provides national leadership in areas from risk assessment and remediation science to issues of social inclusion and regulation. Winner 2010 STAR Award Convener of CleanUp 2011 – www.cleanupconference.com CRC CARE – Australian science creating a cleaner, safer future for all Visit us at www.crccare.com Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment CRC Care Research by the CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE) covers a range of assessment, remediation and regulation issues. Mines and mineral processing sites can have their own legacy of environmental contamination, which explains why the CRC’s clients for clean-up research and solutions include Rio Tinto, Chevron Australia and BHP Billiton Iron Ore. O Climate change ne solution of special relevance to the minerals sector in 2010 was the work by CRC CARE PhD student Jason Du, based at the CRC at the Mawson Lakes campus of UniSA in Adelaide. Jason was one of 15 young Australian finalists to present their research work at the national Fresh Science event in Melbourne in June 2010. Putting the squeeze on tailings Mineral processing typically needs 500 litres of fresh water for every tonne of ore. However, it is widely recognised that the processes used to separate liquids from solids are low in efficiency. This also means very large disposal sites are needed. Tailing streams with kaolinite (clays) contain loose, water-holding materials which lead to slow settling rates and poor sediment density. By applying ultrasonic energy to a tailings stream before the thickener, these loose structures can be re-arranged into denser forms that retain less liquid, enabling water savings. The subsequent use of flocculants enables these new denser materials to settle 40% faster, but no further water is saved – until now. Jasons’ research set out to determine whether ultrasonic energy applied after flocculant addition could compact the waste materials further and thus release more water. By analysing scanning electron microscope (cryo- SEM) images, he found that large amounts of water were still locked in fine honeycomb structures. Traditional ‘raking’ was found to break down the structure into smaller self-supporting structures, but these still trapped a large amount of water. The breakthrough for this research was the finding that ultrasonics could help release much more water from these closed structures. The final results showed that this treatment increased the density of output from the thickener process by 4% (weight). It was estimated that this could increase water recovery at one site in NSW by over 400ML/year, worth $5.57million every year to the company. Considering that mining accounts for 3% of Australia’s total water use, the mine’s location in the water-stressed Murray-Darling Basin adds extra significance to this finding. Image: Jason Du demonstrating his tailings squeeze process using ultrasound at the CleanUp 09 conference in Adelaide, 24-30 September 2009