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Nominations for EPA TAS Sustainability Award close soon
06/08/2019
The Environment Protection Authority Tasmania (EPA TAS) is calling for nominations for this year's EPA Sustainability Award until entries close on Wednesday 14 August 2019.
EPA Director, Mr Wes Ford said that the Sustainability Award is designed to recognize the practical efforts being made by industry and community sectors towards environmental sustainability.
“The Award is open to Tasmanian businesses, groups and organisations that have developed and implemented clean production initiatives and sustainable practices," said Mr Ford.
“The EPA is particularly keen for nominations from Tasmanian businesses wanting to demonstrate how they are helping to protect the Tasmanian environment," said Mr Ford.
Nominations are open until Wednesday 14 August 2019, and the winners will be announced at a Gala presentation on Friday 22 November 2019.
Network News - July
31/07/2019
All the latest from AELERT including the recent Secretariat visit to Tasmania, our Woodsmoke Webinar, featured Discussion Board questions and the latest Environmental Regulation news.
JOB ALERT: Principal Water Regulation Officer
19/07/2019
A rare opportunity to influence water regulation compliance and monitoring in Western NSW in this ongoing, full-time position located in Armidale, Tamworth, Dubbo, Queanbeyan, Albury or other as negotiated is now available within the Natural Resource Access Regulator, a part of the Department of Planning, Industry & Environment.
The Principal Water Regulation Officer provides strategic direction to and manages water regulatory projects to ensure the delivery of agreed outputs and outcomes. This role also provides expertise in water-related compliance processes and projects.
An attractive salary starting from $125,000 pa is available for the right candidate.
Closing date: 28/7/19
For more information about the role including key accountabilities and challenges, please view the role description or contact Graeme White at graeme.white@nrar.nsw.gov.au.
Full job ad: https://iworkfor.nsw.gov.au/job/principal-water-regulation-officer-163884
Registrations for the AELERT Water Compliance Forum now open!
16/07/2019
Registrations for the AELERT Water Compliance Community of Practice (CoP) 2019 Forum are now open! The purpose of the Water Compliance CoP is to share information on cross-cutting issues, solve problems, and promote best practice in water compliance policy and operations amongst Australian States and the Australian Government in a collaborative way, while building capability within the AELERT network. The 2019 Water Compliance CoP forum will be held in Brisbane, Queensland. It is being jointly hosted by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and the Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.
Water compliance practitioners in policy, operations, coordination, and management, from all Australian States and Territories are invited to attend. If you are unable to attend, or have changed your role, please consider forwarding this to a colleague.
The forum will involve:
- A keynote presentation
- Panels and guest speakers
- Breakout sessions
- An optional post forum dinner
- An optional field trip on 23 August 2019
The agenda will be confirmed closer to the date of the forum. If you have any questions about the Water Compliance CoP or the forum, want to refer a colleague to join the CoP, or want to suggest an agenda item at the forum, please contact the team at watercopcoord@mdba.gov.au
FREE Webinar For AELERT Members
01/07/2019
"Who's Pluming Who?" Woodsmoke in Tasmania
John Innis, Senior Scientific Officer, EPA Tasmania
Tasmania's location in the roaring forties combined with its comparatively small population, low traffic levels, and limited large-scale industry, results in low ambient levels of most of the Air NEPM criteria pollutants. However, for PM2.5 (particulate matter up to 2.5 millionths of a metre in effective diameter) Tasmania has a number of centres that exceed the 24-hour standard. The cause is woodsmoke from winter wood heating, bushfires, and planned burning operations.
In 2009, EPA Tasmania commenced a program of establishing a near-state-wide smoke monitoring network, using instrumentation that was both state-of-the-art and much lower cost than conventional instrumentation. This program was called "BLANkET" - the Base-Line Air Network of EPA Tasmania, and currently consists of 35 stations across Tasmania.
The rich BLANkET dataset has provided significant insight into smoke levels and detailed information on smoke movement and dispersal across Tasmania. The data is used in improving smoke-management practices from planned-burning operations, assisting public health response during bushfires, and for real-time public information, as well as to inform EPA Tasmania for assessing air quality against national standards. The data has allowed us to assess the relative sizes of the smoke impacts from the various sources.
The data indicates that most Tasmanians receive most of their particle exposure from winter woodheater smoke. Woodheater education programs are conducted each winter by both EPA Tasmania and local councils. In general however these do not appear to have significantly lowered winter smoke levels.
This talk will present an outline of BLANkET, overview the new understandings that have arisen from the data, and will consider some of the broader aspects of smoke pollution in Tasmania.
Where:
Once live, you can watch the webinar with this link and even post questions during the talk: bit.ly/smokeTAS
If you are based in the Launceston area you’re welcome to attend in person, simply email secretariat@aelert.net
When: Tuesday 9 July 10:30am AEST
Time by jurisdiction:
TAS, NSW, ACT, VIC, QLD 10:30am – 12pm
SA, NT 10am – 11:30am
NZ 12:30pm – 2:00pm
WA 8:30am – 10am
AELERT Chair Sleeping out for Vinnies
14/06/2019
Our AELERT Chair, Mark Gifford, will be forgoing the comforts many of us take for granted (think warm bed and hot showers) for one night to participate in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. On Thursday 20 June, Mark will be sleeping on the concrete at White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney as part of the 2019 Vinnies CEO Sleepout. He’s doing this to raise awareness and funds to address homelessness in our community.
The night itself is more than just sleeping in the cold, it’s an educational, emotional journey for CEOs, politicians and community leaders to get a meaningful insight into some of the causes and consequences of homelessness.
Mark is fundraising to support the work Vinnies does to get these people back on their feet. All the money raised will go towards crisis accommodation options for families and individuals, case management and counselling, educational and living skills courses, health services and home packages for people transitioning to housing.
People like Tony and his son benefit from the crisis accommodation and other services provided by Vinnies. Tony stayed at Vinnies’ Vincentian House which is the only family crisis accommodation that also accepts men and teenage boys.
Did you know…
- More than 116,000 Australians experience homelessness every night, and 32 percent are just children
- 30% of people experiencing homelessness were born overseas. For many of them English is not a first language, making it even more challenging to find help and access services.
- People sleeping rough in our towns and cities account for just 7% of those experiencing homelessness – most are less visible, in crowded boarding houses, on friends couches and other unsuitable accommodation
- Older women are the fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness in this country
If you’re able to support Mark and help him reach his fundraising target, you can donate here: https://www.ceosleepout.org.au/fundraisers/markgifford/sydney
Thank you for your support!
AELERT gets a mention in Pet Industry News
12/06/2019
The Pet Industry News features an article on wildlife trafficking in their latest publication.
AELERT member, Iain Bruce was quoted in the article. Iain is the Manager Intelligence and Investigations Unit - Environmental Compliance Branch, Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
““The government has invested $36 million to improve our efforts in recent time. In the past three years, DELWP has doubled the number of wildlife forest officers from around 35 to 70. I’d like to think that Victoria is leading the way with significant intelligence by having a dedicated intelligence function.”
DELWP also uses the AELERT forum, a contact point to share information on wildlife trafficking compliance in resource management, and attends its bi-annual conference, he added.”
Read more of the article here: https://www.petnews.com.au/full-magazine/?post_id=5452
AELERT Coming to Tasmania
11/06/2019
The AELERT team (Zoé and Felicity) are coming to Tasmania from 2-11 July for a series of roadshows, discussions and a webinar and they want to meet you. If you are interested in finding out more, hosting a roadshow, or having a face-to-face meeting with AELERT, you can email them at secretariat@aelert.net.
Membership is free and will give you access to; online discussion board, training, member-only resources, events and much more.
Whether you want to join or discuss how to get the most out of your membership, the AELERT team are happy to meet with you.
TAS to introduce long-awaited container deposit scheme
07/06/2019
Environment Minister pledges to introduce long-awaited container deposit scheme
Source: The Daily Telegraph
TASMANIANS will be able to swap cans for cash by 2022 after Environment Minister Elise Archer announced plans for a long-awaited container refund scheme.
Ms Archer revealed plans for the scheme in a budget estimates hearing on Thursday.
She pledged to pull together an expert reference group that would help guide legislation to allow the initiative to begin.
“Drink containers currently account for around 41 per cent of litter by volume in Tasmania, and we know one of the most effective ways to change littering behaviours is to introduce a container refund scheme as has been seen in other Australian jurisdictions,” Ms Archer said.
“The scheme will encourage positive, incentivised recycling and re-use behaviours, that will help reach our target of becoming the tidiest state by 2023.”
Network News - May
06/06/2019
Read all the latest news from AELERT including the recent Secretariat visit to SA, the training sessions coming up in Darwin as well as staying updated on the latest Environmental Regulation news.
