There’s something rotten about the Bulla tip, neighbour Carmel Egan claimed last week. Citing clouds of dust, paper and plastic rubbish, mud and an acrid smell, other neighbours say there are times they could not invite friends over or enjoy the outdoors because of the odour.
Tullamarine residents know exactly what’s rotten about the tip in their neighbourhood – it used to take all Melbourne’s toxic waste. Smoke stacks still let off unknown collections of gases from strategic points embedded in the cap of the old Board of Works dump.
The groundwater is contaminated and, as told by Friends of Steele Creek secretary Helen van Den Berg, concentrations of toxic gases are predicted to keep reacting for the next 100 to 200 years.
“Nobody knows whose house they’ll come up in,” Ms van Den Berg said.
The two tip issues dominated last week’s Hume council meeting. The agenda included a request to extend the life of the privately owned tip on Sunbury Road in Bulla, and a decision to abandon development plans for buffer land around the former Tullamarine toxic waste dump at Westmeadows.
Nineteen speakers told councillors what they thought during the two minutes they were each allocated for feedback during question time.
Bulla residents argued strongly against extending the tip’s permit for another 10 years and urged councillors to limit the
extension to three years, as proposed by Cr
Jack Ogilvie.
“Council, as the regulatory authority, finds itself in conflict with the EPA [Environment Protection Authority],
” Cr Ogilvie said, later adding he thought the authority had “lost the plot” at the Bulla tip.
Cr Drew Jessop requested that the EPA be invited to address community concerns.
Residents have determined to take their objections to the council’s extension of the Bulla permit to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
