Contaminants

Pressures

• Inappropriate use of chemicals and fertilisers in agriculture.
• Tailings waste from mining that is likely to include toxic substances.
• Legacy contamination from previous land uses.
• Use of antimicrobials to prevent or treat disease in humans, animals and plants.

Impacts

• Increased soil acidity from agricultural product removal, inappropriate use of fertilisers and nitrate leaching, which can impact plant growth and require additional use of lime.
• Accumulation of agricultural chemical and metal contaminant residues in soils, for example, cadmium).
• Chemical trespass can impact non-target species and other industries, for example, bees, native insects and aquaculture. A decline in pollinators such as bees and butterflies will, in turn, impact recruitment of native plants and crop yields and other ecosystem services. Chemical trespass reports received by PIRSA have ranged from 76 in 2004-05 to 39 in 2018-19. Forty-nine chemical trespass complaints were logged in 2021-22 and 39 were assessed as worthy of investigation. Weather during use was the principal suspected cause of chemical trespass, followed by surrounding land use.
• Contamination of surrounding land from chemicals used by industry, for example, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances and chemicals from mining industries.
• Production and storage of tailings (minerals waste) may impact land and result in pollution (for example, metals, acids and sediments) due to lateral or vertical leakage from storage facilities.
• Legacy site contamination may pose a risk to human health and constrain proposed development and use of land.
• Frequent and inappropriate use of antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, antifungals and antivirals, can result in increased resistance to antibiotics causing impacts to human health, animal health and welfare, food security and the environment.

Responses

• Monitoring of pH and application of lime to address soil acidity.
• Regenerative agriculture has been adopted by some farmers to balance the ecology of soils and improve soil health.
• Site contamination is regulated by the EPA and is assessed under the planning system, which includes a standardised legislative framework to assess and manage site contamination risks.
• Chemical use is regulated by PIRSA under the Agricultural and Veterinary Products (Control of Use) Act 2002.
• Management of tailings and tailing storage facilities needs to comply with relevant legislation and meet certain requirements. Compliance and incident reports are required.
• The Atlas of Australian Mine Waste is an interactive online mapping tool that provides governments, industry and the community with accurate information about Australian mine tailings, waste rock, smelter residues and related mine waste materials.
• Establishment of CRC SAAFE to tackle antimicrobial resistance across Australia. Research is also being undertaken by other organisations such as the Australian Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Ecology and CSIRO.

Opportunities

• As chemical trespass incidents do not appear to have reduced since 2004, investigate approaches that will help reduce the frequency and risk of chemical trespass events and help identify sources when they occur.
• Build proactive measures into new land use planning instruments being prepared across South Australia, including accountability for previous users who have caused pollution of land.

Waste

Further information on the regulation of waste management is provided in the ‘Waste’ section of the Liveability theme in the report.

Pressures

• Landfill and other waste disposal.
• Illegal dumping.
• Littering.

Impacts

• If wastes are hazardous, inappropriate disposal can be harmful to human health and the environment.
• Littering and illegal dumping impacts the amenity of an area. It can also harm animals that may become tangled in litter or ingest it and soils that can become contaminated by illegal dumping of toxic waste.

Responses

• Waste is managed and regulated by the EPA under the Environment Protection Act 1993, including the management of landfills.
• The Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act 2016 is administered by councils to address the management of litter.

Opportunities

• Circular economy measures to reduce waste to landfill.
• Facilitate a litter clean-up program such as Adopt a Patch.

Check out

Waste in Liveability