Hazardous Landfill Gas and Groundwater Assessment, Wollongong Juvenile Detention Centre NSW
The Detention Centre was earmarked by the NSW Government to be reopened after siting vacant and unused for several years. A Phase 1 investigation was conducted as part of a due diligence exercise and found that the site had been notified to the NSW EPA under section 60 (CLM Act 1997) given that an adjoining former landfill had encroached the site boundary. Landfill gas and leachate was therefore potentially posing a health risk to future workers and inmates of the facility.
Sullivan Environmental Sciences conducted the Phase 1 and prepared a Sampling Plan. Field monitoring and sampling work of landfill gases and groundwater was conducted then a detailed report was prepared and submitted to the NSW EPA for review and assessment under the CLM Act.
The site was subject to a risk characterisation process under the NSW EPA Hazardous Ground Gas guidelines (2012). Additional field investigations of soil/rock profiles, field monitoring and further sampling of landfill gas and groundwater were ongoing concurrently with the redevelopment of the site. An annual landfill gas monitoring program was conducted to verify the risk classification as low and acceptable.
