A construction company and its director have been fined a total of $15,000 for allowing asbestos contaminated demolition waste to be buried at a Tatong property while carrying out renovation work.
Trehem Pty Ltd and its director, Ross Alexander McMahen appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday each charged with dumping, depositing or discarding industrial waste on land at the premises.
The court heard resident, Ian Philip Cuming, engaged Mr McMahen’s business to renovate a cottage at his property in Tatong, 25km south of Benalla.
Despite both knowing the roofs of nearby disused pig pens were constructed from asbestos, Mr Cuming agreed to Mr McMahen’s suggestion to remove them as part of the renovation and bury them on site.
In October 2011, Mr McMahen engaged and directed Extons Pty Ltd it to demolish the pig pens, dig a trench and bury the material. The materials were dumped in two separate trenches, the court was told.
When Environment Protection Authority Victoria contacted Mr McMahen about illegal burying of asbestos contaminated demolition waste, he denied any wrongdoing.
He later admitted to burying the materials in a trench a week later but it took him nearly another three months, after he was again contacted by EPA, to admit that more materials were buried in a second trench.
Subsequent testing of samples taken confirmed the presence of asbestos in both trenches.
EPA issued the property owner (Cuming) with clean-up notices requiring all industrial waste contaminated with asbestos be removed and disposed of properly. Disposal of 337 tonnes of waste came at a cost of almost $75,000, the court heard.
Mr McMahen was fined $5000, without conviction and his company, Trehem Pty Ltd, was convicted and fined $10,000.
Mr Cuming was also charged with one count of permitting to be dumped, discarded or deposited industrial waste at the premises. He fronted the Benalla Magistrates’ Court on 25 November and was fined $5000, without conviction.
Another defendant involved in this matter, Extons Pty Ltd, has not entered a plea and will appear at the Benalla Magistrates’ Court on 27 January 2015.
EPA North East Manager, Clare Kiely said the entire incident could have been avoided if appropriate steps were taken.
“Businesses and contractors need to discard of waste appropriately and pay the cost of proper disposal,” she said.
“The costs would have been substantially less had the waste been disposed of appropriately, not to mention the stress on individuals in being taken to court.”
Ms Kiely encouraged the community to report pollution to EPA on 1300 372 842 or by visiting www.epa.vic.gov.au