Fill Material, Rehabilitation and EPA requirements

At some point in the life of every quarry, back-filling and rehabilitation works need to be carried out and material (rock and soil) sourced for these works.

Potential Opportunity
At some point in the life of every quarry, back-filling and rehabilitation works need to be carried out and material (rock and soil) sourced for these works.

Topsoil and rock being excavated by construction firms are normally transported to receiving sites where the producers pay to dump it. In Victoria these sites are becoming fewer and more expensive. This creates a potential opportunity for quarries to accept some of this material. This article provides some guidance to the process.

Material Production
The infrastructure and residential construction boom in Victoria are producing vast amounts of waste materials:

• Metro Tunnel excavation work for the ANZAC station produced 1.8 million cubic metres and the Tunnel Boring Machines 600,000 cubic metres of rock and soil.
• West Gate Tunnel alone is likely to produce 1.5 million cubic metres of rock and soil.
• Residential housing site cuts average 500,000 cubic metres per month (personal estimate).

Much of the rock and soil produced by these projects ends up in landfill. Major infrastructure projects are likely to be located on industrial sites, and some have contaminated soil. In contrast, new residential estates and rural project sites are much less likely to have contamination. There is scope for mutually profitable agreements between those excavation firms and quarries carrying out back-fill or rehabilitation works.

Sourcing & Classifying Material
The EPA classifies any material removed from a site as “waste,” be it an old car body or soil. The first step towards clarity is to discontinue using the term “clean fill” and replace it with “fill material” as it may contain traces of various contaminants and still meet the requirements to be “fill material.”

The EPA sets out requirements for Fill Material, in the table below. For example, Fill Material cannot have more than 20mg of arsenic per kilogram of soil. Soil cannot be classified as Fill Material if it has more than the threshold level of any of these 25 contaminants.

In the residential property sector, companies carry out the initial site cut excavations for each house block, then transport the excavated material to dumping sites. I spoke with the CEO of a leading company in this sector, Earthlift, who is in discussions with environmental engineers to carry out soil tests. (Laboratory analysis must be undertaken by a National Association of Testing Authorities accredited laboratory.) Soil quality will be verified as meeting Fill Material requirements prior to transporting. Another advantage of verified Fill Material is that it doesn’t require tracking through Waste Tracker or a transport permission.

Lawful Place
After release of the new regulations on 1st July 2021, the quarries I contacted were confused and avoiding accepting Fill Material. However, there is good news.

First, according to the EPA, “it’s up to businesses to determine if their premises is a lawful place under the determination requirements” for sites that are planning to receive waste classified as Fill Material. There is also no requirement for the site to register with the EPA to receive Fill Material. It is advisable but not compulsory for the Receiver to create a declaration of use agreement with Suppliers confirming basic requirements and expectations of the receiving site.

Second, the EPA has documentation to help firms understand the regulations. The most helpful is “Specifications acceptable for receiving Fill Material” at http://www.gazette.vic.gov.au/gazette/Gazettes2021/GG2021S301.pdf

Each business is responsible for reading those specifications carefully and determining if it is a lawful place for receiving Fill Material. But the broad message is that if:

• the Fill Material is soil (i.e., not containing bricks plastics and other, as far as reasonably practical)
• the Fill Material does not include putrescible or organic waste

• the Fill Material is not malodorous
• the Fill Material does not contain discoloured chemical deposits or staining from chemicals
• the use of the Fill Material is allowed by all other regulation
• the quarry inspects received consignments and retain records of deliveries
• then the quarry can be a lawful place to receive it.

The quarry must work through a self-assessment process of reviewing requirements from the relevant EPA Determination and advisory documents. A Receiving site must also adhere to the General Environmental Duties expected of all work sites.

Understanding Lawful Place (Overview for all parties)
https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/for-business/waste/declaration-of-use/lawful-place

How to read and comply with a waste determination
https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/about-epa/publications/2005

General Environmental Duties (generic requirements for all work sites)
General environmental duty (GED) | Environment Protection Authority Victoria (epa.vic.gov.au)

Accredited Consigner List (Persons accredited by EPA to advise Providers and Receivers)
Register of appointments | Environment Protection Authority Victoria (epa.vic.gov.au)

Source: Soil Hazard Categorisation Thresholds table (EPA 2021) Full table can be viewed at https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/about-epa/publications/iwrg621

Bio: Ross Kelly, Business Consultant – www.rosskellyconsulting.com.au

I am a CMPA Member and provide business-wide advice on efficiency improvements, including re-organisation.
I have held various roles, including Regional Manager for Caterpillar Underground Mining (Western North America), Relationship Manager
for Boral and Holcim at William Adams, and Manager of two RTOs in the construction/quarrying sector.

Acknowledgements: EPA Victoria (Melbourne office), Scott Langford (CEO Earthlift), Metro Tunnel fact sheets, West Gate Tunnel fact sheets.

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