Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) has fined Australian Tallow Producers Pty Ltd more than $8,000 after officers found the company had not completed works required under a Pollution Abatement Notice (PAN).
EPA Regional Manager Metro, Daniel Hunt, says the company was given a chance to undertake odour control works, but failed to meet the deadline.
“The notice was first issued in December 2017, in response to reports of offensive odour in the Brooklyn residential area, where EPA officers confirmed a strong odour with rotting meat characteristics,” he said.
Australian Tallow holds an EPA licence for a rendering facility and manufacturing meal and tallow from mixed abattoir material.
EPA issued the company with the Pollution Abatement Notice, a legally enforceable order that instructed the company to install odour control works by a certain date.
“The PAN required the company to modify its waste receival and storage activities to occur in an indoor area maintained at lower air pressure than the outside. That low-pressure area would enable any air leaving the building to be directed through a treatment system, to prevent strong odour from escaping to the atmosphere,” Mr Hunt said.
“The company has made efforts to comply, with plans for the construction of an enclosed waste receival area, but after two extensions of the deadline, an EPA inspection found the company had still failed to complete the work,” he said.
EPA has fined the company $8,060 under the Environment Protection Act 1970, and will continue to monitor and communicate with Australian Tallow to ensure it completes the works to prevent offensive odours affecting the local community.
Several years ago, EPA prosecuted Australian Tallow for odour related offences during 2010 and 2011.
Under the Environment Protection Act 1970 and the Infringements Act 2008, the company has the right to have the decision to issue the infringement notice reviewed or alternatively to have the matter heard and determined by a court.
Victoria’s new environment laws take effect on 1 July 2020 and introduce a general environmental duty requiring businesses and individuals to prevent harm to the environment and human health. Learn more on EPA’s website at www.epa.vic.gov.au/newlaws
Members of the public can report odour and other types of pollution to the EPA 24 hour hotline, on 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842).
You can download EPA’s fact sheet on odour, here: https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/air/docs/Odour-factsheet.pdf