Respond to the regulator's odour notice as a major non-conformance

You are the environmental compliance coordinator in Safety, Licensing and Compliance.

Simulated workplaceAdvanced missionCAQA GreenLoop Sustainability

What is going on

On 2 September three residents east of the Windsor facility complained of strong odour between 6:30 and 8:00 am. The register shows windrow 26-088 was turned at 7:00 am with a light easterly wind, which the odour management plan lists as a condition under which turning must not proceed. The regulator has issued a notice requiring a written response within 14 days covering the cause, immediate actions and preventive measures, and the complainants are owed a reply within five working days. Ngaire Patterson wants the event treated as a major non-conformance: investigated against the procedure and licence, risk assessed, root caused with the organics crew and answered with a corrective action plan that will stand up to scrutiny.

Ngaire Patterson, Safety and Compliance Manager
Subject: Regulator odour notice for Windsor

The regulator has issued a notice following the three odour complaints on 2 September and wants a written response within 14 days explaining the cause, the immediate actions and the measures that will prevent a repeat. Treat this as a major non-conformance. Investigate against the odour management procedure and the licence conditions, assess the environmental risk, work out the root cause with Bronwyn's team and draft the response and the corrective action plan. The complainants also need a reply within five working days.

Your brief

Investigate the odour event against the procedure, the odour management plan and the licence conditions, assess the environmental risk, establish the root cause with the crew, draft the response to the regulator and the replies to complainants and prepare a corrective action plan that is tracked in the registers.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

Read the odour and composting process control procedure, the environmental policy and the Windsor licence and consent conditions in the legal obligations register, and review event EV-26-143 in the incident register.
Gather the evidence: the turning record, the weather observations, the boundary odour observations, the complaint times and the crew's account of the decision to turn.
Assess the environmental risk of the event and of a repeat using the risk matrix, considering the sensitive receivers, the season and the frequency of easterly mornings.
Run a root cause analysis with Bronwyn Tate and the crew, testing whether the forecast was checked, whether the plan's wind conditions were understood and whether the schedule pressure from the full pad contributed.
Draft the written response to the regulator covering the cause, the immediate actions taken, the preventive measures, the timeframes and the evidence that will show they are working.
Draft the replies to the three complainants within the five working day commitment, in plain language, stating what happened and what will change.
Prepare the corrective action plan with owners, dates and verification measures, update EV-26-143 and enter the actions in the improvement register.
Brief Ngaire Patterson with a one page summary and the residual risks.

My notes: what did I enjoy, and what surprised me?

What someone in this role would produce

Investigation record with evidence and root cause
Environmental risk assessment
Draft response to the regulator
Draft replies to complainants
Corrective action plan with register entries

Printing this is a record of what you explored. It is not a certificate or a qualification.