Tassal deal on fish farm waste

ENVIRONMENTAL groups and the Greens have welcomed a partnership between Tassal and TasWater to deal with the salmon company’s waste water at its Macquarie Harbour operations.

Last month Tassal lodged an application with the Federal Government to collect and transport up to eight million litres of waste from the harbour’s fish pens for six months from November and treat it before release.

Environment Minister Elise Archer joined environmental groups opposed to the proposal to say she had concerns about the plan.

But Tassal chief executive and managing director Mark Ryan said the company would enter into a trade waste agreement with TasWater for the water and sewerage utility to manage the filtrate water at the West Coast fish farm.

“The filtrate water will comprise 0.5 per cent of daily outflow through a co-disposal system located at Pardoe, near Devonport,” Mr Ryan said.

He said the waste capture system had consistently captured and removed 75 per cent of waste at Macquarie Harbour to leave filtrated water for TasWater.

“As a result of our waste capture system, we have 100 per cent regulatory compliance of our farms in Macquarie Harbour,” he said.

Greens marine environment spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the party was relieved the waste water from the fish farms would not be dumped back into the harbour.

Laura Kelly, of Environment Tasmania, said the public needed to know what exactly would now be going through the public sewage system.

“Congratulations to West Coast locals for standing up and demanding that Tassal’s waste isn’t dumped back into their harbour,” she said.

Ms Archer said the decision to engage TasWater to remove the waste was a logical solution.

“I had made it clear that I was not comfortable with the previous proposal and that it was outside of community expectations,” she said.

“I am very pleased Tassal has listened to my concerns and that of the community, and come up with an alternative proposal.”