EPA Decision:
On 8 January 2024, Development Licence DL000300045 was issued to Paper Australia Pty Ltd (trading as Opal Australia Paper) under section 69(1)(a) of the Act. The development licence is subject to conditions. The application is proposed to be undertaken in a way that meets environmental standards.
EPA assessed the application against all requirements under section 69(3) of the Act, focusing on air emissions, discharge to surface water as well as noise and odour. Based on that assessment, the EPA are satisfied that it does not pose an unacceptable risk of harm to human health and the environment. A summary of the decision is available on Engage Victoria. A copy of the development licence is also available on this page.
Latrobe City Council Submission:
The application proposes changes to the Paper Mill. Opal will reduce the number of operating plants from 3 to 2. This will change the Mill's licensed discharges to air and surface waters.
The proposal includes:
- Transitioning pine pulping from the Batch Kraft Mill (BKM) to the Continuous Kraft Mill (CKM)
- Taking the Batch Kraft Mill offline
Latrobe City’s submission proposes:
Inclusion of the Amenity Lifestyle Precincts and Amenity Lifestyle Investigation Areas within the Planning Context of the application.
- Assessing the cumulative effects of air emissions, especially So2 emissions, from other developments in the region to ensure there is not a risk to human health.
- Discussion in the odour assessment about previous assessments undertaken to support Amendment C104 and C87 and outline any differences between that modelling and modelling undertaken as part of this assessment to greater understand any potential impacts.
- Undertaking a noise assessment at each location to determine what the maximum noise level is at each of the sensitive receptors so the noise impacts on the community can be better understood.
- In addition, Latrobe City Council encourages ways to seek reduction in environmental impacts as technology improves.
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