Assignment 1

7002ENG Engineering Communication and Leadership

Leesa Johnston


Introduction
As an Environmental Officer for a chemical manufacturing facility, I was responsible for
overseeing the implementation of an action plan that had been developed by the environment
team to achieve compliance with environmental license conditions prohibiting the release of
contaminated stormwater. The objective of the plan was to enable the site to cope with a 1 in 10
ARI and to negotiate a licence amendment or controlled discharge. Therefore, I was also
responsible for ensuring that appropriate contingency measures were taken during significant
weather events, in order to prevent a release of contaminated stormwater prior to completion of
the action plan. This report will describe how the implementation of the action plan was
unsuccessful due to an inconsistent understanding of the plans objective by stakeholders.
Leadership Role
The environment team was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the action plan and
compliance strategy and each action required to be completed. Team followers included
manufacturing team members, who were responsible for procurement and installation of
equipment and site operators who were responsible for implementing incident response
procedures.
Demonstration of Leadership
The environment team had previously submitted the action plan to each stakeholder group for
sign off, which outlined the overall compliance strategy. In order to ensure that each action was
completed I followed up with stakeholders when scheduled work was delayed.
In order to ensure that the interim incident response procedures were properly understood, I
formalised stakeholder roles and responsibilities in a Pollution Incident Response Plan. This
involved liasing with operators who would be using the Plan to ensure ownership of
environmental incidents. During these meetings, I discussed the purpose of the Plan and the
environmental values that could be impacted by a pollution incident, such as users of
downstream waters for irrigation and stock drinking waters purposes. Once the Plan was
Assignment 1
7002ENG Engineering Communication and Leadership
Leesa Johnston


completed I held toolbox talks with sites operators and placed copies of procedures in the
workshop and operational areas.
Problem Encountered
The installation of storage tanks that would enable the site to cope with an 1 in 10 ARI was
delayed by several months. During the week the tanks were installed, weather forecasts
predicted a rain event that would cause the sites dams to overflow. I notified the manufacturing
team that the sites water balance indicated that the contaminated stormwater would need to be
removed from the sites storage dams in order to prevent an off-site release. During this
discussion I became aware that the manufacturing teams understanding was that the site could
discharge stormwater now that the site could cope with a 1-10 ARI.
Resolution
After confirming the compliance strategy with senior member of the environment team, I advised
the manufacturing team that licence amendments had not yet been agreed to by the
administering authority and that releasing contaminated water from the sites dams would
constitute a breach of license conditions. Following these discussions the manufacturing team
proceeded with contingency measures and removed contaminated stormwater from the sites
dams. This was a positive outcome in terms of environmental compliance, however the actions
resulted in a financial cost to the company, which left stakeholders feeling disappointed with the
outcome.
Conclusion
Only two out of the three stakeholder groups were motivated to take ownership of the projects
success. This situation could have been improved by raising awareness of the projects goals
and purpose in order to send a clear message to stakeholders on the consequences of not
completing the action plan before the wet season. This may have resulted in the manufacturing
team expediting the installation of equipment.