EPA will issue two new Pollution Abatement Notices (PANs) to B.T.Q Pty Ltd, the operator of the landfill at 500 Sunbury Road Bulla, after they failed to implement measures to extinguish a fire and appropriately assess the site’s leachate management infrastructure.
Environment Protection Officers inspected the landfill on Thursday 4th September to discover strong burnt odours and smoke emerging from holes and cracks in covered waste, despite being required to extinguish the fire before September.
Assessing and determining whether existing leachate management infrastructure is appropriately managing leachate had also not been addressed.
EPA Metro Manager Richard Marks said failing to comply with the notices had resulted in ongoing risks to environment and the issues being escalated to enforcement for review.
“EPA’s first course of action is to work with operators to ensure compliance with the Environment Protection Act but if they fail to do so, we will look at imposing penalties,” he said.
Failure to comply with PANs may result in penalty notices attracting fines of up to $7,218, and where companies are prosecuted at court, the maximum penalty is $250,000 and suspension or cancellation of licence to operate.
The two new Pollution Abatement Notices will require the site’s operator to appropriately identify and extinguish all subsurface fires and assess the site’s infrastructure to manage leachate.
Mr Marks said officers would continue to remain actively involved in ongoing issues at the site.
“EPA has attended the premises on nine separate occasions since March last year. We’ll continue to require improvements until we are satisfied that the operators are managing their environmental risks appropriately.”
Environment Protection Officers investigate reports made via our pollution hotline and encourage the community to call 1300 EPA VIC when they are experiencing odour, smoke and dust impacts.