In 2021 new Environment Protection Regulations came into effect. A key principle of the new regulation was the concept of General Environmental Duty (GED), which is a positive duty to proactively identify and manage environmental risks, and it’s a shared responsibility of all Victorians.
As part of our requirements under GED, we recently reviewed noise controls at Wollert Quarry to identify any plant and equipment that might emit unreasonable noise – either in volume, intensity, duration or character.
Taking positive and proactive steps to meet the regulator’s noise protocols and limits makes us a good neighbour, and is also vital to the prospect of obtaining an approval to expand Wollert quarry, which has the potential to release an additional six million tonnes.
A supplier was engaged to assist with the project and undertook compliance monitoring and modelling to identify plant and equipment that needed to be addressed. Following the modelling exercise, several measures were proposed, including:
- Restriction of operations in the morning between 6am and 7am.
- An enclosure for primary plant, with suitable opening for material feed.
- Screening to all sides of screen one and the secondary processing plant.
- An acoustic wall to the western edge of the concrete batching plant.
- Screening to the open areas at the bottom of the screening shed.
The works involved a capital investment of over $2.2 million and was delivered in stages, with oversight from the Capital Projects team over a nine-month period. A number of operational changes were also made, including the removal of the mobile crushing circuit.
The team will assess the effectiveness of these noise mitigation efforts, with early results indicating the measures are performing well and are providing the expected noise reduction.
Andrew Rankin Wollert Quarry Manager recognised the true teamwork across the operating model that helped deliver this result “Thanks to everyone involved – from the local Wollert team, to support from our Property, Environment and Capital Projects team who have all played a role in successfully reducing our environmental noise footprint here at Wollert and maintaining our social licence to operate.”
