Works approval critical information requirements for
intensive livestock
Introduction
This document lists the critical information to be included in a works approval application for a
conventional indoor piggery or a cattle feedlot. A works approval is a type of environmental
approval (required for some intensive animal industries) issued by the Department of Environment
Regulation. Ultimately, the Department of Environment Regulation will determine what
information they need for each application.
While this document relates to conventional indoor piggeries and cattle feedlots, it may also
provide guidance for other animal industry applications, which will require similar sorts of
information. The ultimate goal of a works approval application for an intensive livestock
development should be to demonstrate that risks to surface water, groundwater and
community amenity are properly managed.
Your proposal may include components which are not addressed by this document (eg. a
biodigester). You may contact the Department of Agriculture and Food (Narrogin) for assistance
with what information might need to be included in your works approval application.
Information requirements have been taken from



National Guidelines for Beef Cattle Feedlots in Australia (3rd edition)
(“Beef Guidelines”)
National Beef Cattle Feedlot Environmental Code of Practice (2 nd edition)
(“Beef Code of Practice”)
National Environmental Guidelines for Piggeries (2nd edition revised)
(“Pig Guidelines”)
These are referred to in the body of this document as the “National standards”. However,
proponents must comply with further rules (beyond those mentioned in this document) to fully
comply with these National standards.
For further information on licensing and works approvals, including an explanation of the
calculation of fees, see Industry regulation licensing- Guide to licensing Environmental Protection
Act 1986 published by the Department of Environment Regulation.
Supporting your success
Contents
1. Contacts and preliminary information
2. Site information
3. Water pollution protection
5. Community amenity protection
6. Contingency plans
7. Diagrams
1. Contacts and preliminary information

Name, address, phone number and email of all the parties involved eg. proponent contact,
premise owner, premise occupier (if they are different)

Premise location using street numbers, lot numbers, diagram or plan numbers or any other
information to enable the premises to be clearly identified

Overview of development

Estimated cost of development

Estimated time of completion of development

Energy supply
Identify your energy requirements and source. Provide details of any relevant permits.

Water supply
Identify your water requirements and source. Provide details of any relevant permits.

Development approvals
Identify whether you have made an application for or received development approval from
the relevant LGA or other decision making authority.
2. Site information

Size of property

Existing premises use

Size of controlled drainage area
This is the area that will need to be managed as part of the development including all areas
occupied by infrastructure, including drainage infrastructure.

Proximity to environmentally sensitive areas

Required clearing of native vegetation
Include details of clearing permit if one has been obtained.

Site topography
o Eg. The proposed feedlot site slopes gently from the south to the north. The fall of
the land is approximately 10 m over 400 m or approximately 2.5%.

Soil type
General soil type information is available via the NRM INFO portal accessible at
http://maps.agric.wa.gov.au/nrminfo/ or via the maps and data section of the DAFWA
website.
o Eg. The dominant soil type at the proposed site is a duplex sand over shallow
gravelly clay with medium to heavy clay at depth

Groundwater information
Provide details about groundwater under your site including
o groundwater occurrence type (confined, semi-confined, unconfined),
o aquifer type (clay/crystalline rock, silt/fractured rock/limestone or sand/gravel/fill),
o salinity level and
o distance to groundwater
The groundwater occurrence type refers to whether there are water permeable layers
above and/or below the aquifer that will transmit water. Aquifer type refers to the substance
that the groundwater is contained in.
Groundwater information from existing bores may be found on the Department of Water
“Water information reporting” atlas at
http://wir.water.wa.gov.au/SitePages/SiteExplorer.aspx. 1:250 000 Hydrogeological Series
maps showing local aquifers and approximate distances to ground water are also useful.
These were published by the Waters and Rivers Commission (now Department of Water)
and are available on the Department of Water website by searching the website for “1:250
000 hydrogeology sheets” along with the name of the area you are interested in.

Distance to closest surface water
Your activity should not be within 50m of a waterway or near a public drinking water source.

Flood level
The National Standards require that sites are above the 1 in 100 year flood interval level or
else incorporate appropriately designed levees or similar structures. Unfortunately, statewide 1 in 100 year flood level data is not available. A more general indication of flood risk
could be determined by consideration of local topography or use of the Landgate Flood
Map (which gives sites a flood hazard rating according to slope, height, distance from
nearest water body and ten year satellite imagery). Topographical maps are available via
the NRM INFO portal accessible at http://maps.agric.wa.gov.au/nrminfo/ or via the maps
and data section of the DAFWA website. The Landate Flood Map is available on the
Landgate website at http://srss.landgate.wa.gov.au/flood.
3. Water pollution protection

Mean monthly rainfall data.
Data is available via the Bureau of Meteorology website ‘Climate data online’ at
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/ .

Clean water diversion
Describe the clean water sources, drainage and disposal method.
o Eg. Clean water is harvested from off roofs and between sheds via diversion banks
as shown on attached drawing and directed to a pond for reuse.

Waste management system (liquid and solid)
Describe your waste management system. You must account for all solid and liquid waste
and potentially contaminated water in your system.
Eg. (Piggery) Effluent and washing water are removed from the sheds via a pull and plug
system into an underground sump before being directed through closed drains to a solids
separation screen, into a covered anaerobic treatment pond and then finally into an
evaporation pond. Wastewater from truck washdown will also be directed into the same
pond system. Solid waste including deceased animals will be composted on a sloped,
concrete pad with any leachate draining into the treatment pond via pipes.
Eg. (Cattle feedlot) The majority of cow poo will be mechanically scraped out of pens and
composted on a concrete pad (with any leachate draining into the treatment ponds) before
being taken off site. Effluent (contaminated rainwater from pens) will be directed via drains
into a sedimentation pond and then into an evaporation pond. Sludge from the
sedimentation pond will be periodically mechanically removed and added to the manure
from the pens for composting. Deceased animals will also be composted with the other
solids.

Design capacity of waste management system (liquid and solid)
The design capacity of your waste management system may depend on whether it forms
part of your contingency plans (eg. whether you want to include 30 days spare sump
capacity to hold waste if there is a pond failure). However, National standards recommend
the following design capacities for some parts of the system
Continued over page…
Potential
emission
source
Liquid waste
drains
Ponds
Cattle feedlot
Drains should be sized and maintained
so that overtopping occurs no more than
once every 20 years
National standards suggest ponds
should be designed to a capacity so
spills occur no more frequently than once
in twenty years (or 10 years if effluent is
irrigated).
National standards recommend cleaning
the pond whenever it is dry.
Piggery
National standards suggest ponds should be
designed so overtopping does not occur on
average more than once every 10 years.
Note: Ponds must also have a 500mm
freeboard, which may be sufficient to hold
the one in ten year overtopping event.
National standards suggest desludging when
the volatile solids reduction in the primary
anaerobic pond falls below 50% or the
volatile solids concentration in the treated
effluent exceeds 1%.
Solid waste
spreading
Maximum phosphorus and nitrogen application rate criteria to protect water quality
Vulnerability Soil description
Max available
Max available
Maximum
category
phosphorus (as nitrogen (as N) manure
P) loading
loading
application
(kg/ha/yr)
(kg/ha/yr)
rate (t/ha/yr)
(cattle)
A
Coarse sandy
10
140
1.2
soils/gravels
(PRI2<10) draining to
surface waters with
mod/high risk of
eutrophication.
B
Coarse sandy
20
180
2.6
soils/gravels
(PRI<10) draining to
waters with low risk
of eutrophication.
C
Loams/clay soils
50
300
6.1
(PRI>10) draining to
waters with mod/high
risk of
eutrophication.
D
Loams/clay soils
120
480
14.7
(PRI>10) draining to
waters with low risk
of eutrophication.
Source: Waters and Rivers Commission, 1998, Irrigating Vegetated Land with
Nutrient-Rich Wastewater (Water Quality Protection Note) as published in Guidelines
for the Environmental Management of Beef Cattle Feedlots in Western Australia
(2002)
o Calculation of solid manure
Effluent quantities from piggeries will depend on the inputs into the piggery. The Pigbal
program, available from the website of Australian Pork Limited, can be used to calculate the
total effluent output.
For cattle feedlots, estimated manure production is shown below:
Annual manure removed from feedlot pens (Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
Queensland Note 4).
Animal weight (kg)
Fresh manure
Dry matter (t/yr)
Manure removed
(t/yr)
(t/yr)
300
4.27
0.427
0.39
450
6.42
0.642
0.58
600
8.54
0.854
0.78
Source: Reference Manual for the Establishment and Operation of Beef Cattle Feedlots in
Queensland (2005), Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Queensland
o Calculation of treatment pond size
The Pigbal program, mentioned above can be used to calculate the size of piggery effluent
treatment ponds.
While piggery treatment ponds are used to ‘treat’ volatile solids, cattle feedlot ‘treatment’
ponds are used to settle sludge (as a solids separation system). As such, cattle feedlot
sedimentation ponds do not need to hold effluent for a long time to ‘treat it’ and can be quite
small. In fact, some alternative solids separation systems (weirs, terraces etc) do not hold
any water at all.
o Calculation of evaporation pond size

Permeability of all potential emission sites
Describe the permeability of all potential pollution emissions sources. Ideally, all elements
of your development will meet the permeability standard specified for that potential
emissions site in the relevant National standards (listed below).
Potential emission source
Pens/Sheds
Cattle feedlot
Use impermeable liner if the
permeability of underlying soil/rock
strata exceeds .1mm/day
Piggery
Sheds should be concreted
Carcass composting pads
Use impermeable liner if the
permeability of underlying soil/rock
strata exceeds .1mm/day
Pads should have a base permeability
no greater than 1 x 10-9 m/s for a
depth of 300mm comprising two
150mm deep layers
Liquid waste drains
A liner able to provide
approximately .1mm/d permeability
should be used if flow velocity
exceeds 1.5 m/s.
Drains should be made out of smooth
concrete, fibreglass or other
impervious material.
Ponds
National standards suggest
‘holding ponds’ should be
underlain by a minimum of 300 mm
clay or other suitable compactable
soil, or by a synthetic liner able to
provide a design permeability of
less than .1 mm/d.
National standards suggest soil under
ponds should have a maximum
permeability of 1 x10-9m/s for a depth
of 300 mm for ponds up to 2m deep,
or a 450 mm for deeper ponds
(compacted layers should not exceed
150m each).
Ponds constructed with soil contained
less than 20% clay will require sealing
with liners made from imported clay,
polyvinyl chloride or high density
polyethylene.
All other elements (including solids separation systems, sumps, feedmills, etc) should also
be designed to an acceptable permeability standard.

Groundwater monitoring procedure
5. Community amenity protection

Required distance to sensitive receptors
Calculations for separation distances between your activity and the nearest sensitive
receptors (S factors) are available in National Standards. If your proposal does not meet the
S factor recommendations, you may choose to use a more detailed odour assessment.

Descriptions of noise and dust emissions sources, amelioration techniques, monitoring
techniques and monitoring frequency.

Description of visual impact of site and associated amelioration techniques.
6. Contingency plans

Waste management system contingency

Power failure contingency

Biosecurity event contingency
7. Diagrams

Map of premises including
o the location and dimensions of the site
o the location and dimensions of existing buildings and infrastructure
o the location and dimension of proposed building and infrastructure
o the location and dimensions of existing features such as vegetation and
watercourses
o the location of emissions sources and discharge points
o the location of environment monitoring activities or equipment (eg. bores)
o the location of sensitive receptors
o stormwater diversions
Annotated aerial maps are ideal. Aerial images are available on Google Earth.

Shed/pen plans
For a cattle feedlot, common pen designs are back-to-back designs (<2% natural gradient)
and front-to-back designs (>2% natural gradient) and include concrete aprons.

Diagram of wastewater treatment system including, if applicable,
o Flow direction in sheds/pens and drains
o Direction of effluent flow between sheds/pens and ponds
o Components of the waste treatment system
o Capacity, dimensions and design of components of the waste treatment system
o Flow points into and out of the waste treatment system
o Associated infrastructure such as valves