A LANDOWNER has urged a Deer Park landfill firm to clean up its
act after industrial rubbish was found more than a kilometre away.
Mr Cohen, who owns property adjacent to the site and did not want
his first name published, wants Boral to stop dumping rubbish in windy
conditions and install a transfer station, after what he says has been
more than a decade of improper practice.
He said that on August 16 rubbish was found more than 1.6
kilometres away and junk not picked up by the landfill’s clean-up team
was lost to the environment.
“A portion of the rubbish has already travelled with the wind more
than 1.6km, all the way to Boundary Road and beyond,” Mr Cohen
said. “Over the past 14 years rubbish has been dispersed far and wide
outside the site.”
Boral Waste Solutions acting manager Nick Stuhlener said “extreme
wind conditions” of 100km/h-plus gusts between August 16 and 20 caused
the problem.
He said the company accepted full responsibility and would repair damaged fencing around the site.
“While a large proportion of litter blown from the landfill was
contained within the site, unfortunately the litter fencing failed in
some areas under the extreme pressure of the prevailing strong winds,”
Mr Stuhlener said.
“We were surprised that not all of the heavily reinforced sections
of the litter fences held up, but to have such extreme conditions
cannot be considered ‘usual’. Our team of litter pickers, who normally
work within the perimeter of the site, were deployed to neighbouring
properties on Friday [August 16] to clean up the windblown litter and
they worked through the weekend. We also self-reported the incident to
the Environment Protection Authority, as is our practice when such an
incident occurs.’’
The highest wind gust reported at the Bureau of Meteorology’s
closest weather station at Essendon Airport from August 16-20 was 83km/h
onAugust 16.
An EPA spokeswoman said the extreme winds of the past two weeks
made litter control difficult. She said the EPA was organising an
inspection of the landfill that would focus on litter control.
