The development aims to improve the quality and reduce the amount of trade waste sent from the site to the TasWater Longford Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

JBS director and head of corporate and regulatory John Berry said there had been continued risk to the processing business from the shortcomings of the sewerage treatment plant at Longford. Mr Berry said the existing CAL at the Longford site was old. 

“To ensure the JBS Longford business is able to continue to operate, there needs to be an upgrading of either the sewerage treatment facility owned by TasWater or alternatively another treatment plant,” he said.

“There is a lot of cost associated with retrofitting these facilities and that’s why we’ve come up with an idea to develop a new CAL from the JBS facility. It’ll go through that facility and then go through the TasWater facility.”

Mr Berry said the risk was about the ability of the TasWater facility being able to meet its environmental license obligations. 

“That’s why JBS has worked with TasWater and the local Northern Midlands Council to look at options and that’s where the CAL proposal comes in.

“CAL technology is proven, it addresses the issues around odour, it provides co-generation through gasification, which could benefit the JBS Longford facility.” 

Mr Berry said the cost of the development could exceed $5 million.

Mayor David Downie said anything to help with the process of sewerage was good. 

“The town requires a sewerage system that would cater for about 100,000 people. There’s only about 3000 people in Longford. It has always been stretched to capacity and needs further investment,” he said.

Cr Downie said the development was not being funded by the Northern Midlands Council.

A TasWater spokesperson said the organisation had been cooperating with JBS Australia for some time as they develop a sustainable proposal to pre-treat effluent from their site to reduce impact on the existing site.