About
Effective environmental risk management, approvals and compliance solutions
Do you need assistance in making informed decisions about environmental risks, preparing environmental documentation to support mining and development approval, monitoring environmental impacts during the construction phase, assessing ongoing compliance or anything else related to environmental legislation?
Caloundra Environmental has been providing high-level environmental management services to clients across Australia since 2005, ranging from the mining industry to small businesses. Specialities include:
- Assessing project and environmental impacts.
- Drafting and submitting Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and Environmental Management Plans (EMP), or their equivalent, to all tiers of government – local, state and Commonwealth – whether relating to surface water, groundwater, Acid and Metalliferous Drainage (AMD), noise, heritage, visual amenity, waste monitoring, rehabilitation and closure or MNES species (fauna and flora) as necessary.
- Managing approvals processes for new operations or segments of operations.
- Liaising with stakeholders, including Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) staff and conservation groups.
- Overseeing environmental performance and monitoring.
- Auditing existing operations in accordance with regulatory requirements.
- Managing remediation and rehabilitation programs.
While based on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane for the past two decades, founder and director Stephen Kent is an expert in his field and has more than 30 years’ experience Australia-wide in environmental management, regulation and approval processes in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Your resourceful environmental specialist
Stephen’s expertise is wide-ranging, encompassing all areas of environmental management with an invaluable and detailed working knowledge of government processes and legislative requirements thanks to his experience not only as a company environment manager and a private consultant, but also in government roles during the 1990s.
He moved away from his regulatory background because rather than tell people that they can’t do something, he wanted to embrace the challenge of providing practical, cost-effective solutions to difficult problems.
Prior to establishing Caloundra Environmental, Stephen was the environment and OHS manager for Australian Bulk Minerals in Tasmania from 1997 to 2005 and also held a dual role between 2003 and 2005 with a related company, Ivanhoe Cloncurry Mines, in northwest Queensland.
Under Stephen’s environmental management for Australian Bulk Minerals, the company received two Tasmanian Environmental Excellence awards related to mining and minerals processing – in 1999 for innovative waste rock management and in 2001 for water management.
Mining environmental approvals, management and rehabilitation, including AMD, is a primary field of expertise.
The mining industry and geochemistry including AMD is a huge passion for Stephen and he has published several papers. He has previously been appointed as a deputy member on Tasmania’s Board of Environmental Management and Pollution Control.
One of the principals Stephen embraces, the origin of which has been attributed to multiple sources, is: “In god we trust, for everything else we need data.”
Committed to continual professional development
Having attained a Bachelor of Applied Science (Environmental Health) with Credit in 1990 and a Graduate Certificate in Management with Distinction in 1997, both from the University of Western Sydney, Stephen is also a devotee to lifelong learning.
He has continually upgraded his skillset with courses including:
- Air Pollution Control and Particulate Control Technology (University of Queensland).
- Aquatic Ecosystems (Queensland University of Technology).
- Ausplume (Vic EPA).
- Blue Green Algae Identification and Radiation Safety (Central Queensland University).
- Environmental Auditing (Centre for Professional Development).
- Environmental Noise Model (Vipac).
- Noise Assessment and Control (Ron Rumble & Assoc).
- Risk Assessment (Sinclair Knight).
- Safety and Environmental Systems Auditing (Det Norske Veritas).
With strong communication skills at scientific, bureaucratic and management level vitally important to achieving successful outcomes for clients, he has also undertaken persuasive communication and conflict resolution training through the University of Queensland and Central Queensland University respectively.
Having been extremely effective in gaining environmental approvals for mines in Tasmania, Caloundra Environment’s approach is corporate-friendly, cost-effective and solution-oriented.
This includes coordinating other experts where necessary, such as ecologists, water chemists or Aboriginal heritage officers.
Contact Stephen Kent
Project highlights
Caloundra Environmental has been involved in the approval process of many large-scale projects in the public eye, as well as various mine closures and rehabilitation programs. Below is a small selection of notable projects considered by Stephen to be among his career highlights:
- Successfully managing the environmental approval process for the South Deposit tailings storage facility at the Savage River Mine – the largest dam to be built in Tasmania since the Gordon-below-Franklin Dam. This was an arduous approval process with environmental approvals required from the Commonwealth Department of Environment, the Tasmanian EPA and the Waratah–Wynyard Council. Approval was gained during the tenure of a Labor-Greens government alliance in Canberra and a Labor-Greens government in Tasmania, making validation requirements quite onerous. The establishment of ecological management plans and inductions for compliance with the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Control Act 1999 was critical for this project.
- Successfully managing the environmental approval processes for a number of mining ventures in Tasmania – open-cut at Burns Peak, Que River and Mt Bischoff, tailings re-treatment at Hellyer and underground mining at Fossey – with each involving a focus on the development of practices to remediate legacy AMD. In many instances, this has included acting as the client’s external Environmental Manager during the approvals process, including providing technical and managerial guidance, developing and implementing policy, handling compliance inspections and making recommendations for improvement.
- Contract-managing the rehabilitation and closure process for the Highway Reward Mine in North Queensland between December 2012 and January 2016, following the long-term cessation of mining. This included bring the site back into compliance with its environmental authority, re-establishing monitoring programs and developing and maintaining relationships with Department of Environment and Heritage Protection officers.
Papers
Papers authored or co-authored by Stephen include:
- Li, J., Kawashima, N., Kaplun, K., Schumann, R., Smart, R. St.C., Hughes, A., Hutchison, B. & Kent, S. (2012), ‘Investigation of alkaline cover performance for abatement of ARD from waste rock dumps at Savage River Mine’. Paper presented at 9th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage (ICARD), 20–26 May 2012, Ottawa, Canada.
- Kent S.B. (2009). ‘A strategic overview of acid rock management and remediation at Savage River’. 8th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage (ICARD), Skelleftea, Sweden.
- Brett D., Hutchison B. & Kent S. (2007), ‘Savage River Mine – Rock dump evolution’. Australian Centre for Geomechanics Newsletter, pp. 33–46, August 2007.
- Kent S.B. (2002). ‘The Goldamere Agreement. A Co-operative mutually beneficial environmental management framework’. Enviro 2002. Melbourne, Australia.
Get in touch
Stephen Kent
Owner and DirectorTo find out how Caloundra Environmental can help you, give Stephen a call on 0417 574 799 send an email today.