By Luke Voogt
An application for a plant at Lara converting up to 400,000 tonnes of waste per year into 35 megawatts of electricity has been lodged with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria.
Prospect Hill International lodged a works approval application to construct the waste-to-energy plant at 164-200 McManus Road, Lara, the EPA announced on Wednesday.
Prospect Hill estimates the facility will generate enough electricity to power up to 50,000 homes using residual waste currently destined for landfill.
The company’s application includes technical studies including:
• a comparison with international best practice standards for waste-to-energy facilities,
• human health impact assessment,
• air and odour emissions,
• noise emissions,
• greenhouse gas emissions, and
• incoming and outgoing waste management.
The EPA will conduct its own studies of these impacts, along with assessing the application against environmental legislation, state policy and relevant standards and guidelines.
As part of this process the EPA has published the plans for locals to have their say.
Public submissions can be made until April 28 at engage.vic.gov.au/epa-works-approvals/prospecthill
