Welcome To The CMCOAG Blog
WELCOME TO the Canning Melville Community Odour Action Group
This group (CMCOAG) was recently formed by concerned residents to collectively investigate the Regional Resource Recovery Centre (RRRC) that is run by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC).
The repugnant odour that invades our suburbs and neighbourhoods comes from this facility.
In particular, it escapes from the Waste Composting Facility (WCF).
The WCF receives all of the rubbish that residents put into their green top bins, which includes food scraps, garden clippings, that old saucepan or jumper that is no good, general junk and rubbish.
Rubbish is collected from households throughout the seven councils that make up the SMRC, (Canning, Melville, Fremantle, East Fremantle , Cockburn, Kwinana, and Rockingham) servicing about 350,000 people.
This rubbish (109,000 tonnes per year) is delivered directly to the tipping floor by the rubbish truck, some items removed (hoses, batteries, chemicals etc), then loaded into the Digesters (huge revolving tubes).
Biosolids in the form of sewerage sludge, chicken and pig manure, crayfish heads etc, are added in a proportion of 1 to 2. (54,500 tonnes per year), all transported through our neighbourhoods.
The bacterium from the biosolids reacts and works on the rubbish as it travels through the constantly rotating “Eweson Digesters”, converting the biodegradable organic portion of the waste into compost. This process only takes 3 days.
Non degradable items like plastic, steel (that old saucepan), synthetic materials etc are filtered out and sent to a landfill site, a reduction of 80 % of what used to be dumped, and the balance is compost.
All that you have read so far could be used as a promotional item to promote the virtues of such a waste treatment plant, BUT THAT IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY.
The systems that are built to manage the ODOUR are not working!!
The SMRC have been aware that they are not containing the odours to the plant, and have been modifying the equipment and building as suggested by consultants in the past, but to no avail. The odour is getting stronger, more putrid, more frequent, and detected over an ever increasing area. As people are becoming aware of the source of the odour, they are realizing that it is not the neighbours smelly bin or compost tumbler that they once suspected.
Since we started distributing leaflets requesting affected people, not just residents, to phone or email their locations, we are becoming aware that the problem is widespread, with reports from workers at St John of God Hospital, residents who live beyond Leeming Recreational Centre, Apsley Rd in Willetton, Bannister Rd commercial businesses, Canningvale Markets, and heaps of suffering residents within those broad boundaries.
The SMRC now have a new report, “the Odour Report”, by the same consultants used before, which reveals many structural and equipment failures, management procedures needing modification, and a range of suggestions to implement that may help alleviate the odour problem, with no guarantees of success.
To implement these changes the SMRC wants to spend a further $2.4 million, funded by the ratepayers via a $50 LEVY ON EVERY HOUSEHOLD, and to subject those affected to increased odour as they close down the filtering systems and odour extraction ventilation systems as they progressively upgrade them. This process is stated in “The Odour Report” as taking 2-3 months for design, first biofilter refurbishment in 3-4 months (there are 4 to be done), installation of collection system 6-8 months.
We could be breathing in this foul air for more than a year whilst the SMRC experiment, still with no guarantees of success.
