Tara Murray
Barro believes there’s good signs in regards to the intigushing of some of the hot spots at the Kealba Landfill.
At its most recent community meeting, Barro provided an update to residents on the hot spot fires that have been going on for more than two years.
Barro’s Nino Frasca said that there were some positive signs.
“Heat signatures that have been reported over hot spots two, three and four strongly indicate those have now been extinguished.
“We now need to take off the last couple of metres to get the gravel base to check those areas and their integrity.
“They won’t officially be declared they have been extinguished until they are signed off by an auditor, what we are seeing is very positive as we are heading towards the holiday period.
“To that end, we are monitoring the site of the Christmas and New Year break and we are putting together a contingency plan which will be provided to the community via letter drop box and website.”
The remaining hotspot is not expected to be put out before May.
While Barro will be monitoring the site across Christmas, the business will be closed for two weeks.
Barro’s Steve Murphy said they had reduced the normal closure period by one week, to try and make up some of the lost time to put the fires out by wet weather.
Meanwhile, online community meetings held by Barro will now be held monthly instead of weekly.
Attendance at the meetings which have been held fortnightly in recent times has decreased.
Residents said that they weren’t getting the answers they needed from the forums and were in support of the move to making them monthly.
Discussion around the establishment of a Facebook page with information was suggested.
At the meeting, residents also raised their concerns about the lack of information from the EPA in recent months about the site and the fires.
The next meeting will be held on January 5.
