ACLCA Victoria regularly funds industry based research projects. If you know of a project that requires funding or have a research idea please get in contact with vic@aclca.com.au. Some examples of projects that ACLCA Victoria have funded in recent years include:
Project: Contamination of Groundwater in Fishermans Bend Due to the Impacts of Legacy Landfills.
Researchers: Matthew Currell (RMIT Supervisor), Pacian Netherway (EPA Supervisor), Christopher Sandiford (ACLCA Vic Representative), Tim Robson (ACLCA Vic Representative)
Description: ACLCA Victoria supports PhD Student at RMIT on the investigation of emerging contaminants in groundwater from legacy landfills. The overarching aim of this project was to identify a wide range of emerging contaminants in groundwater surrounding legacy landfills in Victoria, focused specifically in Fishermans Bend (as a case study area) Specifically, this project aims to:
- Identify emerging contaminants in groundwater (via targeted and non-target analysis), arising from landfill and non-landfill sources.
- Obtain better understanding of the sources, fate and transport of legacy landfill-related contaminants and methods of differentiating these from other potential sources.
- Explore the potential application of non-target analysis as an investigation tool (particularly in relation to new contaminated land duties under the Environmental Protection Act 2017.
Report Link: If you would like to access the report please visit the following link: Contamination of GW in Fishermans Bend
Project: Human health risk assessment from accidental ingestion of garden soil: impact of bio accessible Pb concentrations and soil characteristics on exposure assessment.
Researchers: Chief investigator: Assoc. Prof. Suzie Reichman and Investigators: Professor Ewan Blanch, Associate Professor Susanne Tepe and PhD student researcher Slavica Kandic.
Description: To determine quantitative relationships between bio accessibility and common soil characteristics in soils from the north and west of Melbourne, Victoria.
The ACLCA Collaborative Sub Committee have been working with Suzie and Slavica on this project for over 3 years and have even offered up members vegetable growing backyards to assist in filling out the data set with probably lead contaminated inner Melbourne addresses.
Project: PFAS in Groundwater
Description: In 2017 ACLCA funded a project conducted by RMIT University to investigate sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to groundwater west of Melbourne, Australia. The project investigated wastewater impacted groundwater in the Werribee Irrigation District and groundwater adjacent to legacy landfill sites in Newport and Sunshine. The results of the findings of the investigations in the Werribee Irrigation District were published in Science of the Total Environment Journal in an article titled “Investigating recycled water use as a diffuse source of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) to groundwater in Melbourne, Australia”.
Report Link: If you would like the link please visit here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969718325294.
A complete report also detailing the findings of the landfill PFAS investigations will be available soon.
Project: EnviSMART – Environmental Science Seminar Series
Description: The Environmental Science Meeting for Australian Research Teams (EnviSMART) is a national online forum held monthly and is hosted by the Australian Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants (ALEC) at the University of Melbourne. Along with several other organisations, ACLCA Victoria supported two years of the EnviSMART series to create opportunity for environmental science professionals and researchers to share science and network through the severe COVID lockdowns during 2021 and 2022. Each month introduced a different expert speaker presenting for one hour on industry relevant topics followed by a student forum with several additional speakers and opportunity for discussion. In addition to the series, a channel for the EnviSMART Podcast was also created.
Seminar Links: Members can view the EnviSMART presentations by signing into the Membership Presentations Resources page.