The Coffs Harbour City Council Landfill Legacy Emissions Avoidance Project

The Coffs Harbour City Council Landfill Legacy Emissions Avoidance Project is a landfill gas project located at the Englands Road Waste Management Facility within the coastal city of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. It was registered in August 2013 and covers an unknown area size.

Landfill gas projects involve installing or upgrading extraction infrastructure to capture methane gas generated by the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste in a landfill. The captured biogas is then combusted through flares or electricity-generating engines, converting the potent methane into less harmful carbon dioxide. Standard methodology requirements dictate that the gas flow and methane concentration must be continuously metered, and the gas must be destroyed in accordance with strict operational efficiency standards. This specific project transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method and targets emissions from both legacy and non-legacy waste deposits.

The Coffs Harbour area features a humid subtropical climate characterised by high rainfall. While the facility sits within a major urban center, the surrounding regional land use is heavily focused on horticulture, specifically banana and blueberry farming, alongside coastal forestry operations and cattle grazing. Local soils that support these agricultural pursuits generally consist of fertile red clay loams (ferrosols) and podzolic clay soils.

In addition to its ongoing environmental benefits, this carbon project successfully fulfilled its Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC102339) with the Clean Energy Regulator. It delivered exactly 21,382 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the Commonwealth before the contract was marked completed in January 2024. MRA Consulting Group serves as the project's agent. Interestingly, maintaining these landfill gas systems is critical to local amenity; in 2023, the Coffs Harbour City Council was fined $20,000 by the NSW Environment Protection Authority after a blocked gas flow line at the Englands Road facility caused a persistent odour across the city's south. This highlights the operational challenges and community importance of well-maintained gas capture infrastructure.