By Marcus Uhe
“Significant odour issues and compliance concerns” has forced the EPA to take further action against SBI Inert Landfill.
SBI has been issued with a notice of intent to suspend its operating licence and has been requested to explain why they should be allowed to continue operations.
Locals were informed of the action at a community meeting at the Mayone-Bulluk Family and Community Centre in Cranbourne West on Tuesday evening.
This process can lead to a suspension of licence, one of EPA’s strongest regulatory tools when it comes to ensuring compliance and protection.
SBI has the opportunity to respond to EPA’s notice by 13 September.
Rachel Gualano, EPA’s Director of Melbourne Metropolitan Area Operations, said the 10 business days would allow SBI to consider the notices and to make submissions of any information the EPA would need to take into consideration when making a decision to suspend the licence or not.
“What (the notice of intent) does is, it’s for companies that are licensed or permitted under EPA and it says, ‘We (the EPA) don’t believe you are complying with your license conditions, and we have concerns about that’,” Ms Gualano said.
“We really don’t want the community to be experiencing this type of odour for an extended period of time. It’s not acceptable and we’re taking every action possible to eliminate that situation.
“We’re holding SBI to account and looking at what are the best ways of doing that, and constantly doing that based on what information we have.
“If we’re not seeing any improvements, we’ll continue to escalate that approach.”
The action follows a recent prohibition notice which stopped SBI accepting any new waste, which was lifted on Friday 26 August.
However, since then, new data demanded an escalation in regulatory action.
Ms Gualano said she does not believe the lifting of the notice contributed to the increase of complaints.
“At a particular point in time, there was a reduction in pollution reports, in fact there were some days where we didn’t have any,” she said.
“We also looked at odour surveillance and didn’t detect any off-site odours at that time. We identified that at that point in time, some of the issues that we thought were creating that immediate risk onsite had been fixed.
“Stopping the acceptance of waste in and of itself, we don’t think is creating hydrogen sulphate straight away.
“We did want to allow the company to pause and reassess and spend their energy on fixing the problem, rather than try and run the operation at the same time when we saw that. This notice of intent really seeks to get them again to think about how they’re going to comply with their licence conditions.”
While this action does not mean the odour will be immediately stopped, it does mean that EPA is continuing to use all available options to resolve this issue.
In other actions, EPA has also told SBI that by 30 September, it must review and update their Risk Management and Monitoring Program (RMMP) to demonstrate compliance with the General Environmental Duty and have the updated RMMP reviewed by an EPA appointed auditor.
SBI must also complete an audit of the landfill operations and ensure compliance with the updated RMMP by 30 November 2022.
Brookland Greens estate resident Cheyenne detailed the lengths that she and her husband undertake to combat the “pungent” uninvited guest taking-up residence in their home.
“We’re trying block little gaps in our windows with cotton buds and things like that,” she said.
“You can’t open your windows, you have to try and rush through your front door as quickly as possible just so no smell gets in, and homes aren’t completely solid, so air comes in through the home.
“You get woken up in the middle of the night because your house smells like rotten eggs.
“It has been really difficult to try and live with it because it comes and goes without much warning.”
SBI’s director Simon Williamson said they would work with the EPA to comply with all directions given, including the notice on intent and improvement notice.
“Addressing the odour issue at the SBI landfill remains the highest priority for the site,” Mr Williamson said.
“Landfilling activities remain closed at the site while additional works are undertaken this week.”
For more information on the actions taken by the EPA, head to their website at epa.vic.gov.au
