Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) has fined Landfill Operations Pty Ltd (Cleanaway) more than $15,000 for two breaches of its EPA licence.
EPA Metropolitan Manager Danny Childs said the fines were issued because of elevated landfill gas concentrations detected at the boundary of the Ravenhall landfill premises and because the company had failed to notify EPA of an ongoing licence breach since May 2015.
“The operator of the site has an obligation to ensure it meets the conditions of its licence, and if any breaches do occur, there is a responsibility to inform EPA immediately,” Mr Childs said.
“Cleanaway has breached its licence twice as it has recorded elevated landfill gas concentrations at its boundary, and then failed to inform EPA about the exceedance as it is required to do under the conditions of its licence.
“It is EPA’s expectation that all licence holders immediately contact EPA through procedures spelt out in their licence and in line with supporting guidance as soon as any breach of a licence occurs. The failure to inform EPA in this case has led to the fines being handed down to the company.”
Mr Childs said an EPA investigation that required Cleanaway to provide EPA with all of its monitoring data since May 2015 – when the company became the duty holder of the landfill – found that there had been ongoing issues with methane leaving the site.
“The company has also been issued with a pollution abatement notice that requires it to install further control measures and to check the function of existing control measures to adequately control landfill gas at the site, which is in line with EPA's normal operating procedure for this type of licence breach,” Mr Childs said.