Environmental Odour & Dust Control SWMS

Environmental odour and airborne-dust control work is carried out across demolition pads, civil earthworks, landfill cells, composting windrows and wastewater treatment plants where particulate and odorous emissions migrate beyond the site boundary and create both worker exposure and community-amenity risk. The work involves operating water-cart suppression rigs, deploying vapour barriers and misting cannons, applying masking and neutralising sprays, running real-time PM10/PM2.5 monitors, conducting downwind boundary checks and responding to community complaints under tight EPA timeframes. Because the task involves potential exposure to hazardous airborne contaminants, mobile plant interaction, working near unstable demolition or waste faces, and discharge to the atmosphere regulated under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act, it is high-risk construction work under WHS Regulation 2025. A documented SWMS is mandatory before work commences, must be developed in consultation with workers, kept accessible on site, and reviewed whenever monitoring data, weather or the emission source changes materially.

Hazards identified

7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.

Control measures

Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.

1. 1Elimination — Reschedule high-emission tasks such as crushing, screening or windrow turning to periods when wind direction carries plumes away from sensitive receptors and workers.
2. 2Elimination — Cease emission-generating activity when real-time PM10 exceeds 80 µg/m³ at the boundary or H2S exceeds the action level set in the air-quality management plan.
3. 3Substitution — Replace solvent-based masking agents with water-based neutralisers certified to AS/NZS 4801 supplier assurance and lower volatile organic compound profiles.
4. 4Substitution — Use enclosed conveyors and sealed skip bins instead of open stockpiles and uncovered trucks to reduce fugitive emissions at source.
5. 5Engineering — Install fixed-array misting cannons, vapour barriers and wind-fence screens upwind of emission sources, sized per AS 3580 dispersion guidance and site meteorological data.
6. 6Engineering — Deploy continuous PM10/PM2.5 monitors with telemetry-linked alarms to plant cabs so operators receive immediate notification of exceedances at boundary stations.
7. 7Administrative — Conduct daily pre-start brief using this SWMS, review the prior 24 hours of monitoring data, weather forecast and any complaints register entries before assigning tasks.
8. 8Administrative — Implement complaint-response procedure with 30-minute boundary investigation, source identification and corrective action logged under PoEO Act notification timeframes.
9. 9PPE — Issue P2 half-face respirators fit-tested per AS/NZS 1715, chemical splash goggles, nitrile gloves and hi-vis when decanting concentrates or working within 10 m of active emission sources.
10. 10PPE — Provide powered air-purifying respirators with combined particulate and organic-vapour cartridges for landfill-face and biosolids work where H2S or bioaerosol loading is elevated.

Applicable Codes of Practice

High-Risk Construction Work triggered

Worked example

On a 14-hectare landfill cell capping project, the site environmental officer opens the pre-start brief at 6:30 am with the four-person crew assigned to dust and odour control for the day. They project this SWMS onto the crib-room screen and walk through the hazard register, focusing on the three risks flagged HIGH for the shift: silica dust from the cover-soil stockpile being loaded, hydrogen sulphide drifting from the adjacent active cell, and mobile plant interaction with the water-cart driver and two technicians who will be relocating PM10 monitors. The forecast shows a north-easterly building to 25 km/h by 11 am, which will carry the plume toward a school 600 m downwind. The crew selects controls directly from the SWMS: reposition the misting cannon array upwind of the stockpile, escalate water-cart frequency from 30-minute to 15-minute cycles, and pre-stage PAPR units for the technicians servicing the boundary monitor closest to the active face. Each worker signs the SWMS sign-on register. At 10:45 am the boundary monitor telemetry alarms at 82 µg/m³ PM10. The supervisor pauses stockpile loading per the SWMS trigger, the crew implements the documented complaint-response sequence, logs the exceedance, and resumes only once readings stabilise below the action level for 30 consecutive minutes.

Related legislation

• WHS Act 2011 (model)
• WHS Regulation 2025
• Code of Practice — Hazardous Manual Tasks

Frequently asked questions