Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) is introducing a range of measures to strengthen its processes for the licensing of landfills in response to recommendations of an independent report.
In August EPA announced it would order an independent review into all Victorian landfills licensed to accept asbestos after irregularities were identified in EPA’s licence approval processes for the BTQ Bulla landfill site. The error resulted in asbestos being deposited in an area that has not been assessed in accordance with EPA’s assessment processes.
EPA introduced stricter landfill licensing guidelines in 2010. The independent review by Ernst & Young sought to check all EPA decisions for approval of asbestos landfill cells made since then meet those stricter standards.
The review found the same error had occurred at a landfill in Stawell. EPA believes that neither error resulted in risks to human health or the environment.
The Ernst & Young review also identified that EPA needs to improve how it processes and documents its approval of asbestos landfill cells and the comprehensiveness of related information it maintains.
EPA Chief Executive Office Nial Finegan said he had accepted all the review’s recommendations, which would result in improvements to EPA’s processes for landfill licence approvals.
“The Victorian community deserves to be confident that EPA is consistently upholding the highest standards of landfill management across the state,” Mr Finegan said.
“In the case of the BTQ site, we have already taken action and issued the landholder with an amended licence incorporating new, tighter asbestos management conditions.
“The amended licence is accompanied by a notice requiring environmental auditor verification of cell design for EPA approval.
“In regards to the Stawell site, EPA officers will now inspect the site to establish exactly what actions are required, with the view of issuing the landholder an amended licence and requiring them to provide design and construction documents.
“To address the need to improve specific internal processes identified in the review, we will introduce additional staff training and improved processes and documentation checklists among other initiatives as part of our commitment towards continued improvement.
“EPA will also be reviewing the licence conditions of all landfills across the state and rolling these out through reviews of each individual landfill licence.
“These measures will give the Victorian community confidence that EPA is applying best practice standards in how it licenses landfills across Victoria,” he said.
Mr Finegan said landfill licence holders would be given the opportunity to have their say into the new licence conditions before they are rolled out mid-2016.
For further information and to view the report, Pollution Abatement Notice and amended licence click here