Biowise Stinks

Biowise is an operation jointly owned by SITA and the WA Government through Water Corporation and composts sewage (Biosolids) from the nearby Kwinana waste water treatment plant.

Biowise has been of some concern in the community for many years, however it seems our council in particular the Environmental Health Department have been fully supportive of the operation.

During our campaign against the Rivers Regional Council proposal it became obvious that Biowise was having a negative effect on the amenity and livestyle of residents over a large area on the north side of Kwinana and on the Spectacles wet land situated imediately to the east of the operation. Odour often affected the community and the Spectacles area where tours are conducted. We have also recieved complaints of claimed health effects and of fly's breeding on the site.

It was claimed (and probably rightly so) that our local governemnt (Council) and state governement authorities where turning a blind eye to this operation - why is anyone's guess, but we are attempting to find out.

We recently learned that Biowise had applied (probably encouraged by our authorities) to the DEC to attempt to mask the odour by misting chemicals into the air.

We researched this proposal further and found that there was a history even in WA of the aplication of chemical in an attempt to control odour causing health problems. We learned that the product proposed to be used contained at least one chemical of real concern - Nonyl phenol ethoxylate 9016-45-9

Alkylphenols (APs). Nonylphenols (NPs),octylphenols (OPs), and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) are used in plastics, industrial detergents and emulsifiers, and textile and carpet cleaning. Most can degrade back to alkylphenols, which are persistent and bio-accumulative, and have been found in umbilical-cord blood and breast milk. NPs have also been found in foods, rainwater, and house dust. Alkylphenols can mimic estrogen hormones and in test animals, and can alter sexual development in fish and sperm quality in mice. Low doses of nonylphenol have profoundly adverse effects on oysters. A single exposure during larval development to an environmentally-relevant dose of nonylphenol causes disruption of sexual development, and also lowers survival of offspring in the next generation. Exposed larvae are much more likely to develop as hermaphrodites, and the sex ratio is altered, with more females than expected. According to the scientists who conducted the research, exposure "may result in severe consequences, not only for natural populations but also for commercial hatcheries situated in areas where nonylphenol is present in the water.

Obviously a chemical of concern to Human Health and to Fauna and surely should no be sprayed near people or in such close proximity to a major wetland.

We wrote to SITA asking them to withdraw the application to the DEC until a community consultative committee was set up to discuss the issue. They refused saying they would continue with the application but not install the system until the community had seen the details, which seems all too late.

One must question the spraying of chemicals into the air to mask an odour that should not be there in the first place. The cause should be addressed, for example most of the Biowise operation takes place out doors, not in enclosed sheds with scrubber systems to remove odour, no lining on the ground and no bunds.

Sigh... Looks like we have a long way to go with this one, time to ramp up the campaign.