The future of the Bulla tip awaits the outcome of a five-day hearing held before the state tribunal earlier this month.
Bulla residents made three separate appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal against Hume council’s decision last April to grant Bulla Tip and Quarry (BTQ) a two-and-a-half-year extension of its planning permit.
The permit was granted until December 31, 2016, to allow landfill and rehabilitation works to be carried out.
BTQ also appealed against the council’s decision. The quarry operators had originally sought a 10-year extension, after having being granted a 20-year lease in 1993.
Residents told the tribunal the tip was adversely affecting their health.
Bulla resident Carmel Egan, who attended the week-long hearing, said residents complained of dust, smoke, an acrid stench, litter and ongoing underground fires that had broken through the surface soil “to menace the community for the past two years”.
Ms Egan said the tribunal was told the Environment Protection Authority had issued five clean-up orders and pollution abatement notices to the tip since September, 2013.
Tribunal chairman Russell Byard reserved his decision. BTQ declined to comment. Hume council did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.
