News Round

The EPA’s Sydney offices move to Parramatta

The EPA is joining many of the other NSW Government agencies in the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in a move to the new, centralised government office hub at 4 Parramatta Square, Parramatta. The move is taking place on a staggered schedule until April this year, bringing all of the EPA's Sydney staff alongside our environmental colleagues including Energy, Climate Change and Science and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The re-location is in line with the NSW Government’s ‘decade of decentralisation’. The move brings a new ‘agile’ way of working with flexible arrangements and close proximity to public transport.  The offices will also be closer to the majority of licensees and brings increased opportunity to collaborate with other State agencies already in Sydney's demographic centre – Water, Transport, Police and Education. 

The EPA’s 24-hour Enviroline and the Incident Response team are among those who have already relocated.

EPA runs special Lead safety workshops at Bunnings

EPA Technical Officer Dr Cameron Jennings was on site at Bunnings Alexandria in February to share tips with customers on staying safe around lead when renovating or gardening. The successful drop-in stand was repeated at Kotara (Newcastle) and Warrawong (Illawarra).

The power of community for fire response

EPA licensees and partner programs have been actively helping the fire recovery effort. Return and Earn’s ‘Bottles for the Bush’ campaign has raised $490k for drought and bush fire affected regions in January and February.  

Other efforts are being driven at a local level through Return and Earn.

For instance, Return and Earn champion Red Frog Recycling in Sydney’s South West has leapt to support the firefighting effort in their local area. The company has always worked with schools to encourage fundraising for their communities through the container deposit scheme and now the managing director Anthony Morrissey has established a direct initiative for the local Oaks Rural Fire Brigade. So far, $900 has gone to the Oaks Rural Fire Brigade and with expansion of the program, a further $3,200 has been split between seven other RFS Brigades including Orchard Hills and Kellyville.

“We want our ‘Funds For Our Firies’ to become part of the firefighting fund raising effort beyond this season,” Anthony told EPA Connect. “This is another great way to add extra value for the community through the deposit scheme and we are looking to expand our reach to the every RFS Brigade in the Sydney Metro Areas and its surrounds.”

Many EPA staff have also been offering their time and expertise in their own communities as RFS or emergency centre volunteers. And some have been crafty too.  Jill Sergeant, Janet Sparrow, Rhian Tough and Susie Lee are just a few EPA staffers who have been spending weekend ‘crafternoons’ sewing for wildlife suffering from the fires and drought – or trawling social media for items such as expired meds for the Animal Rescue Collective. Jill and a friend’s daughter made 34 wraps for baby bats that have been abandoned due to extreme heat.

 

“It was great to feel we were doing something concrete and sewing together can be a very soothing activity when you are feeling stressed about the impacts on wildlife,” Jill said.

Susie Lee said: “It has been rewarding to help in these small ways and everyone I volunteered with felt relieved - they could help. What a great country we live in!” she said.

The EPA volunteers emphasised that the wildlife and goods collection centres have been inundated with goods, so it is best to check first or only make cash donations.

Public consultations

• The EPA is now seeking feedback on how it will require and estimate financial assurances under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 and the Radiation Control Act 1990. Submissions are invited on the draft policy and guideline until 14 April 2020. Please visit the EPA public consultation website for further information.
• ‘Redirecting the Future of Plastics in NSW’ and ‘The Future for Waste and Resource Recovery in NSW’, both open until 8 May 2020.