Objectors to the management of two Hume area tips have slammed Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority for failing to ensure health and safety standards.
At a council meeting last week, Tullamarine residents who have battled for many years to prevent development of the buffer land around the old Tullamarine toxic dump site, said the EPA needed to ensure the ongoing rigorous monitoring of emissions from the dump and commit to its rehabilitation.
But it was Bulla residents, there to object to the extension of a permit for private operators of a Sunbury Road tip, who were most scathing of the EPA and the tip’s operators.
Bulla CFA lieutenant Martin Pelly told councillors the 20-year old tip had started to burn at a depth of about 200 feet at least 12 years ago and it continued to burn.
“It is getting worse because the landfill has reached a more noticeable stage of fill, so everybody can see when it flares up,” Mr Pelly said.
“Bulla CFA has been called to the site nine times in the past 12 months. The previous year we attended twice, and prior to that the average call-out was one to two times a year.”
Mr Pelly said the Bulla brigade had asked the Bulla tip management for access keys numerous times without success.
“We know the tip is licensed to receive and does accept asbestos, but we have no idea where it is buried,” Mr Pelly said.
“We believe the asbestos is now being pulverised and reburied, yet it is in its most dangerous form as dust.
“The process the brigade has in place now is that if there are flames sighted and the chance the fire can spread, we will make forceable entry into the tip and initiate fire attack.”
Mr Pelly asked Hume council to mandate access for the CFA and provide an updated map of the site and its contents as a prerequisite for any licence extension.
Other residents spoke of health concerns for their children.
“Under the Hume Social Justice Charter, we are all entitled to live in a safe environment, but this is far from reality for families, neighbours and ratepayers living near Bulla tip, with its fires, dust clouds and acrid stench,” Gabriel Aphram said.
“We ask that air monitoring devices be installed in the homes of people living close to the tip. This ought to be done at the tip owners’ expense.”
But a spokeswoman for the EPA rejected suggestions the authority did not enforce health and safety standards at the Bulla tip.
“All monitoring of Bulla tip and quarry is undertaken in accordance with an EPA-appointed, auditor-verified monitoring program,” she said.
“As part of the program, a proposed cap to reduce the occasional odour detected is currently being reviewed by EPA.”
The spokeswoman said a minor works pollution abatement notice had been issued against the tip operators in 2011 to improve their management practices when disposing of asbestos but has since been revoked.
