Tara Murray
Brimbank council is calling for an urgent immediate mobilisation of additional resources to put out the underground hotspot fire at Kealba Landfill.
The council at its council meeting last week called on the operator, the Barro Group and the state government to look at additional resources to expedite resolution of the issue.
The council will write to the Barro Group, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and Environment and Climate Action Minister Lily D’Ambrosio requesting these resources.
They will also in the letter highlight the council’s frustration regarding the ongoing fire and highlighting the extended timeframe to resolve this issue and community views that not all reasonable steps are being taken to resolve the issue.
The Barro Group had set a deadline of August 22 to extinguish the fires, which has now passed. It was the latest in a number of deadlines they had been given.
Barro requested that it be extended to February 17, 2023 but the Environment Protection Authority in rejected the request.
In an EPA statement in August, it said it was not satisfied all reasonable practices had been taken to meet the standing deadline of August 22, 2022.
With councillor Virginia Tachos, who raised the notice of motion absent from the council meeting, Cr Maria Kerr spoke about it at the meeting.
“Council has been advocating to the state government and the EPA as the responsible agent for urgent action to respond to resident concerns especially regarding odours and air quality,” she said.
“The hot spot fires at the Kealba landfill have been burning since 2019. The fires are having an unacceptable impact on the local community’s ability to enjoy their homes and neighbourhood
“This notice of motion will again see us raise the issue….It continues in advocating in the response to the continued and desperate community concerns about the impact of their health in particularly their mental health.”
