Former Bathurst Gasworks Site

The former Bathurst Gasworks site, located on Russell Street, was operated in conjunction with Orange City and Lithgow Councils as a gasworks from 1888 until 1979. The site, which is owned by The Crown, was then leased to AGL in 1979, who continued to produce gas at the site until 1987. Since that time, the site has remained relatively unused.

The operational elements of the gasworks site remains relatively intact, with structures including the retort houses, gasholders, boiler, tar wells and tar tank.

As a consequence of the site's historic landuse, it has been identified by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) (formerly the EPA) as posing a Significant Risk of Harm (SROH) to human health and the environment, and is considered by the DECC as a site of high priority with regards to remediation. Council is responsible for undertaking this remediation to remove the SROH.

As part of the process, Council has developed a Remediation Action Plan (RAP) which outlines Stage 1 of the remediation works, and entered into a Voluntary Remediation Agreement with the DECC. The Voluntary Remediation Agreement allows Council to undertake the remediation works in a number of stages as funding becomes available.

Work completed to date

Council was successful in securing $500,000 from the NSW Environmental Trust to progress Stage 1 of the works. Stage 1 includes the removal of tarry wastes from structures such as the tar well, ammonia well, purifier shed and a number of above ground storage tanks. The primary focus of Stage 1 is to remove the "Significant Risk of Harm" (as defined under the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997) which the tarry waste potentially presents to the environment. The tarry wastes were treated by a process known as Batch Thermal Desorption. This process uses very high temperatures to breakdown the complex organic compounds which make up the tarry wastes. The gases released during the treatment process were trapped and filtered by a system known as a "wet scrubber". Each batch was treated for at least 72 hours, with the treated material transported to a licensed waste management facility.

Stage 1 was completed in March 2009.

Work programmed for 2009

Council was successful in securing a second grant from the NSW Environmental Trust for Stage 2 of the works. The grant will allow Council to install a further ten groundwater monitoring wells at the site and collect samples of the groundwater for laboratory analysis. Council will then be able to undertake groundwater monitoring on an ongoing basis. This will provide Council and the DECC with sufficient data to determine what future remediation works, if any, will be required at the site.

Stage 2 also includes an assessment of the gasometers (or gasholders), two large structures on the south-eastern portion of the site adjacent to the flood levy. The assessment will determine what impact, if any, these structures have on the surrounding soils and groundwater.

Stage 2 will commence in mid-2009.