Thursday, 1 August 2024

Adjournment

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (18:31): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Waste and recycling management

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:31): (1021) My adjournment is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek is for the minister to listen to and to act upon the continued demands by Greater Dandenong councillors, residents and businesses to have the Veolia-operated toxic waste landfill site closed down. The Veolia Recycling & Recovery site at Taylors Road, Dandenong South, has had three improvement notices issued by the EPA in the last month. The EPA directed that the waste must be managed in a way that minimises the risk of harm to human health. Veolia was told to mitigate and prevent dust being discharged beyond the site. Questions arise under this failing Labor government when this landfill site is the only facility in Victoria that is licensed to receive a broad range of solid hazardous waste classified as category B and in such close proximity to a busy and thriving residential and business community. Community leaders are calling for the site to be closed immediately due to these issues, which are ongoing, because the management of wastewater, dust and landfill is at the site.

In September 2023 the EPA fined Veolia Recycling & Recovery Pty Ltd $9246 for failure to provide a report on groundwater quality at Taylors Road by the specified time. The testing and report were required to, and I quote:

… confirm groundwater has not been adversely affected by the company’s activities and was due on 23 June, 2023, but still has not arrived.

As noted in the Star Journal recently in Dandenong, the EPA south metropolitan Melbourne regional manager said:

Not meeting a deadline means there is uncertainty about any possible environmental impact on the groundwater and that is something the community will not accept.

I reiterate: this tip is the only facility in Victoria licensed to receive category B solid prescribed industrial waste or hazardous waste. Greater Dandenong council acquired the site after council amalgamations in the mid-1990s from the Shire of Cranbourne. A Dandenong councillor has publicly said that there are deep concerns about the health and wellbeing of the community in surrounding areas, where there are schools, residential properties and food processing plants. Council has opposed contaminated waste at the landfill for more than 25 years. The state government pledged that dumping of prescribed industrial waste would continue only until 2020, and I have been advised that the council has recently written to the Minister for Planning outlining concerns about additional users potentially extending the operating life of the facility. Councillors have advocated for no new permits in Dandenong South’s heavy industrial zone, which borders homes and schools, and on behalf of the residents, businesses, schools and people of Greater Dandenong, will the minister advise what action is being taken in relation to the councillors’ safety concerns?