Tara Murray
Kealba residents have the right to be fed up with the ongoing underground fires at the Kealba Landfill according to opposition environment and climate change spokesperson Cindy McLeish.
Ms McLeish met with a couple of concerned residents and the Brimbank Residents Association near the landfill on Friday morning to discuss the concerns.
The underground fires have been burning at the site for two years and operator Barro has said they don’t expect them to be completely extinguished until at least May.
Residents were told at a recent community meeting by Barro that wet weather had put work back a month, but hoped with overtime it could still be completed on time.
The Environment Protection Authority Victoria has issued Barro Group a number of notices in relation to the site in regards to the noise, smell and the putting out of the fires.
The EPA has suspended the group’s license to accept waste at the site.
Currently, the Barro Group and the EPA are engaged in legal action over a show cause notice issued in June.
Residents have long complained about the odours and noise from the site, with many residents complaining about the impacts of their health, both physically and mentally.
One resident, Nicole, told Ms McLeish that the fires were consuming their lives.
“Something went wrong,” she said. “We don’t know how long those fires were burning underground before they realised.
“We’ve got to the stage where no one is asking questions of Barro any more, as we get crap answers.
“The EPA can’t tell us anything either.”
Nicole spoke about the impact of the smell and that some days it left her not wanting to get out of bed and other days it was so bad that it woke her up.
She said that she is now questioning whether the smell has impacted her asthma in recent times.
Ms McLeish said residents shouldn’t have to put up with this.
“Two years and they can’t actually tell you all the information,” she said. “Two years and still no answers or they don’t actually know.
“Nothing has been done and local residents are fed up and they rightly should be.
“Barro needs to fix this, the government needs to make sure that this isn’t happening.”
Ms McLeish highlighted the coalition’s plan of ‘zero to landfill’ which by 2035 would result in no household waste going into landfill, which she said would stop fires like this happening.
Nicole and about 20 other residents were set to tour Barro on Friday afternoon, after deadline.
It’s the first time residents have been able to visit the site since the fires have started.
Nicole said for her the visit, was about trying to get a better understanding of what was going on at the site.
