In June 2016, the Minister for Environment requested the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) provide advice on the size of a land use planning buffer relating to health and amenity impacts of dust, now and into the future, in respect of potential urban development in the Mandogalup area. The request stemmed from the previous Government’s consideration of establishing legislation to control new sensitive land uses in the vicinity of the Kwinana industrial area.
This report presents the EPA’s advice pursuant to section 16(e) of the Environmental Protection Act 1986. Further information related to this advice is set out in a separate supplementary report which outlines the technical material the EPA considered in forming this advice.
This advice principally focuses on the technical aspects of the generation of dust in the Mandogalup area and its potential for health and amenity impacts.
The key findings in the EPA’s advice include:
- The eastern area of Mandogalup is located sufficiently far away from the RDA, and outside the predominant wind field that generates dust from the RDA, that there is negligible health risk and low likelihood of unreasonable amenity impacts in this area; and
- Air quality in the north and north-east Mandogalup area does not appear to meet recently revised national air quality goals for particulates. This is likely due to a combination of dust from Alcoa’s RDA, and sand and limestone quarrying in the area.
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