$76m biosolids plant in comprehensive tribunal win

A $76 million plant to dry sewage sludge at Black Rock has won approval at the state’s planning tribunal.
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal brushed aside the objections of Thirteenth Beach Coast Watch and Clean Ocean Foundation to approve the project.
A company will operate the plant at Barwon Water’s Black Rock sewage farm to produce “biosolids” pellets, which can be used as fertiliser or fuel.
The plant will free Barwon Water from its existing process of trucking the by-product away from Black Rock for dispersal or processing elsewhere.
The tribunal ruled that the objectors’ bid to stop the plant failed “comprehensively…on a number of grounds”.
Their representative based arguments against the plant on “hypothetical” arguments about possible rather than definite impacts on neighbouring properties and the environment, the tribunal said.
The representative was also unable to answer “straightforward questions” and her only formal evidence was from someone “who could best be described as from the field of environmental economics”.
“On any objective assessment, there can be no possible finding that the interests of either the Clean Ocean Foundation or Thirteenth Beach Coast Watch are unreasonably and adversely affected,” the tribunal said.