Environmental

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Through our Small Contractors Integrate Management System (SCIMS) and ISO 14001* accreditation, at Stoney Pinch we actively seek to minimise the impact of our operations on the environment, specifically with respect to native vegetation, waste, visual amenity, noise, dust, soil and water.

Both SCIMS and ISO 14001 place heavy emphasis on continuous improvement being an integral part of our business culture and therefore enshrined in our Company Values.

(* note ISO 14001 accreditation well advanced as at 31.03.16 will be certified in 2016)

Key environmental safeguards include:

• No unauthorised clearance of native vegetation.
• No industrial or domestic waste will be left on work or quarry sites
• Maintain mufflers on all machines
• Avoid, if possible, working on extremely windy days.
• Introduced weeds will be controlled in accordance with NRM Guidelines.
• Organic waste will be collected and disposed of as a control against rats and foxes
• Only clean machinery free of weed seed may enter the site.
• No surface water run-off from quarry sites
• No ground water contamination as a result of mining by:
  • covering working pit floors with impermeable road base materials
• Rehabilitate quarry sites to best practice standard (see EARF Research Project below).

Rehabilitation will be modelled on the Stoney Pinch / EARF Research Funded project Best Practice Rehabilitation Model for Arid Areas.

The lessons learnt from the EARF trial will be put into place at all sites, with the key points being:

• Create a complex of mini dunes and swales
• Install temporary irrigation systems to water over-story seedlings through the first summer
• Plant seedlings propagated from locally sourced seed stock
• Seedlings to replace indigenous (and locally provenant) overstorey species especially selected as dodonea, dwarf nealie, turpentine, mallee and sugarwood
• In winter, direct seed under story species in the swales
• Direct seeded species will be a mix of shrubs and grasses indigenous to the area.
• In winter, use the Green Army to harvest mallee heads in seed and spread around bare areas.