The Development of Environmental Risk Management Methodology in New Zealand. F. Perrot and R. B. Keey, University of Canterbury, Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Christchurch, New Zealand
A generic Australian/New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS 4360:1995) on risk management has provided a template for the control of risks of all kinds. Concurrently, an Environmental Risk Management Authority has been set up in New Zealand to regulate the use of hazardous chemicals and new organisms within the framework of recent legislation. Within this context of standard development and legislation, more specific environmental risk assessment guidance is in process of being developed by an Australian/New Zealand Standards Committee in accord with the guidelines set out in AS/NZS 4360. This new guide must be general enough address the diversity of environmental risks, yet specific enough to be useful. This study will provide feedback to the developers of the environmental risk guidance by applying it to selected case studies. The case studies are typical examples of sensitive industrial activities in New Zealand, which will covered the manufacture of medium-density fibreboard and pulp and paper making. The case studies have been evaluated for risk to the environment using such accepted risk assessment tools as checklists, scoring methods, toxicity assessments, matrix ranking, and qualitative ranking. These results are then compared to proposed methodology of the guide. The results may provide a useful means of fine-tuning the guide.
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