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Visy Pulp & Paper Tumut Mill Visy Pulp & Paper Tumut Mill Soil Management Plan Document no: MPL-TUM-ENV-005-2 Page 1 of 31 Issued By: HSE Manager This is a controlled document Issue Date: 21-Sep-19 Soil Management Plan Visy Pulp and Paper, Tumut Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________ 4 1.1. Background __________________________________________________________________ 4 1.2. Overview of Assessments _____________________________________________________ 4 1.3. Environmental Management System ___________________________________________ 6 2. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS _____________________________________________________________ 7 3. OBJECTIVES ______________________________________________________________________ 9 4. SOIL ISSUES, MANAGEMENT SAFEGUARDS and CONTROLS___________________________ 10 4.1. Identification of soil types and properties within the irrigation area ______________ 10 4.2. Monitoring regime for assessing soil health ____________________________________ 10 4.3. Methodology ________________________________________________________________ 12 4.3.1. Electromagnetic surveying _______________________________________________ 13 4.4. Nutrient budgets _____________________________________________________________ 14 4.5. Salinity ______________________________________________________________________ 14 4.6. Implementation of soil amelioration measures _________________________________ 15 4.6.1 Chemical ________________________________________________________________ 15 4.6.2 Physical __________________________________________________________________ 16 4.7. Methodologies for soil improvement __________________________________________ 16 4.7.1. Conservation tillage ______________________________________________________ 17 4.7.2. Liming program __________________________________________________________ 17 4.7.3 Crop rotations ____________________________________________________________ 18 4.7.4. Deep ripping ____________________________________________________________ 18 4.7.5. Irrigation and crop management _________________________________________ 20 4.8 Training and Responsibilities __________________________________________________ 21 4.8.1. Training _________________________________________________________________ 21 4.8.2. Responsibilities ___________________________________________________________ 21 5. CRITERIA AND GUIDELINES ________________________________________________________ 23 5.1. Soil Quality Guideline Parameters _____________________________________________ 23 6. MONITORING ____________________________________________________________________ 24 6.1. Soil Quality Monitoring as per Environment Protection Licence __________________ 24 6.2 Additional Soil Quality Monitoring __________________________________________ 25 7. REPORTING AND REVIEW _________________________________________________________ 26 7.1. Legal reporting requirements _________________________________________________ 26 Document no: MPL-TUM-ENV-005-2 Page 2 of 31 Issued By: HSE Manager This is a controlled document Issue Date: 21-Sep-19 Soil Management Plan Visy Pulp and Paper, Tumut 7.1.1. Incident and Complaint reporting ________________________________________ 26 7.1.2. Annual Return ___________________________________________________________ 26 7.1.3. Annual Environmental Compliance and Monitoring Report _________________ 26 7.2. Annual Farm and Environmental Assessment Report ___________________________ 27 7.3. Community Consultation _____________________________________________________ 27 7.3.1. Visy Community Consultative Committee _________________________________ 27 7.3.2 Local Community Consultation __________________________________________ 27 8. AUDITING _______________________________________________________________________ 28 8.1. Legal requirements and External audits _______________________________________ 28 8.1.1. Annual Audit ____________________________________________________________ 28 8.2. Internal auditing _____________________________________________________________ 28 8.2.1. Internal Environmental Management System and Compliance Audit________ 28 8.2.2 Complaints Register Audit _______________________________________________ 28 8.3. EMS Audit ___________________________________________________________________ 28 References ______________________________________________________________________ 30 Tables Table 3.1. Objectives and performance outcomes for soil management _______________ 9 Table 5.1 Soil Quality Guideline Parameters __________________________________________ 23 Table 6.1 Soil Quality Monitoring ____________________________________________________ 24 Table 6.2 Soil Quality Monitoring Parameters _________________________________________ 25 Figures Figure 1. Visy land boundaries and irrigation areas ____________________________________ 5 Figure 2. EMS Continual Improvement Diagram _______________________________________ 6 Figure 3. Soil Monitoring Sites ________________________________________________________ 12 Figure 4. Location of soil monitoring sites in relation to EM-38 survey ___________________ 13 Document no: MPL-TUM-ENV-005-2 Page 3 of 31 Issued By: HSE Manager This is a controlled document Issue Date: 21-Sep-19 Soil Management Plan Visy Pulp and Paper, Tumut 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background This plan describes the soil management at the Tumut Pulp and Paper mill. The Project Approval conditions issued for the Stage 2 expansion in 2007 required that the plan be compiled to detail measures to mitigate and manage adverse impacts on soil in areas affected by effluent irrigation associated with the project, including the existing plan. The Soil Management Plan addresses the management processes required to satisfy the Project Approval and Development Consent Conditions relevant to the irrigation of effluent on the Visy site. 1.2. Overview of Assessments Detailed assessments and calculations on water use within the mill, wastewater production and options for irrigation were undertaken for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in 1998. The initial proposal was for irrigation of 1087ML/yr over the dedicated irrigation areas. During the ongoing design of the mill and associated infrastructure a number of modifications to the development occurred particularly relating to water and wastewater management. Further studies were undertaken and a revision of the water balance and irrigation system required the submission of a Statement of Environmental Effects (SOEE), which was approved by authorities in June 2000. The primary changes involved the reduction of water usage in the mill by increasing evaporation capacity, which resulted in the reduction of freshwater required from 2550ML/year to 1147ML/year, and a concurrent reduction in treated effluent produced for irrigation to 430ML/year from 1087ML/year. Treated effluent is irrigated onto land owned by Visy on the property Gadara Park, Figure 1. An extensive surface water and groundwater bore network is established and regular monitoring and reporting of results has been undertaken since irrigation commenced. This has included the Development consent condition requirement for an interpreted groundwater report by a suitably qualified person to be supplied to the NSW Office of Water (formally the Department of Land and Water Conservation) initially and then annually following a specific request from the department. This report is included with the annual Environment Compliance and Monitoring Report as detailed in Section 7. An independent evaluation of the existing irrigation operations and Winter Storage Dam was undertaken by Charles Sturt University for the Environment Assessment in 2006. The evaluation was based on historical operation and environmental monitoring data collected since 2001 and was designed to assess performance of the system to date and as a means of improving monitoring and management techniques to ensure the system is sustainable long into the future. Document no: MPL-TUM-ENV-005-2 Page 4 of 31 Issued By: HSE Manager This is a controlled document Issue Date: 21-Sep-19 Soil Management Plan Visy Pulp and Paper, Tumut Figure 1. Visy land boundaries and irrigation area Document no: MPL-TUM-ENV-005-2 Page 5 of 31 Issued By: HSE Manager This is a controlled document Issue Date: 21-Sep-19 Soil Management Plan Visy Pulp and Paper, Tumut Sixteen new piezometers were installed as part of this review to monitor groundwater dynamics under the irrigation areas. The study found that existing area of wastewater reuse paddocks is sufficient to match the current production for the wastewater treatment plant under dry, average and wet climate scenarios. However for a prolonged wet scenario it was determined that it may be necessary to discharge water from the Winter Storage Dam to Sandy Creek to match wastewater production with the irrigation system as provided for in the current approvals. 1.3. Environmental Management System The Soil Management Plan is a component of the site’s Environmental Management System, certified to ISO 14,001:2015. The Environmental Management System consisting of the Operation Environmental Management Plans, operational and environment procedures, and detailed monitoring and auditing program, aims to maintain compliance with Environmental regulations and achieve best-practice standards through a system of continual improvement, as represented in the diagram below. The EMS is integrated with the site’s Safety and Quality management systems which are both certified to the relevant standards (i.e.
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