Tara Murray
The Barro Group is taking the Environment Protection Authority to court over a show cause notice issued in regards to the Kealba landfill hotspot fires.
The EPA issued a show cause clean up notice to Barro in March calling for the three of the hotspots at the landfill to be extinguished by May and a fourth one by the end of July.
The EPA served a notice on Barro at the end of June, asking it to show cause why its licence to operate at the site should not be suspended after the first deadline wasn’t met.
Last week, the EPA sent out an email to community members saying Barro had commenced legal action in the Victorian Supreme Court regarding the clean up notice.
At last week’s online community meeting about the fires, Barro’s Steve Murphy confirmed that the group had started legal action.
He said there was a directions hearing set down for August 18.
“The decision was taken to put a matter before the Supreme Court, which relates effectively to the remediation completion dates as proposed by the EPA in their latest clean up notice, which was the end of May and the end of July.
“Those dates were very different to the dates that had been proposed by Barro, when we sought an amendment to the clean up notice, which was rejected by the EPA.
“That is the matter up for discussion before the Supreme Court.”
Mr Murphy said from an operational aspect nothing would change for Barro as they continue to try and put out the hot spots.
At the meeting, the group and residents decided to make the meetings fortnightly.
The EPA, which had already indicated that it wouldn’t be involved at the meetings as often, has said it will work with the community to design future engagement forums that allow you access to appropriate expertise and information.
