Councils plan to join forces on illegal dumping

LAST week’s illegal dumping summit in Bacchus Marsh has been described as a call to arms in the fight against the practice.

Moorabool Shire Council mayor Cr Paul Tatchell said the event, held over four hours at the Moorabool Aquatic and Recreation Centre (MARC) stadium, was “extraordinary.”

“We initially thought if we got 20 (participants) we’d be going all right, because you don’t know the further west you go how complex it is or what their problems are,” Cr Tatchell said.

Cr Tatchell estimated that 42 of the 79 Victorian councils were represented, either in person or via online workshops, with a total participation of more than 160 people.

The summit’s keynote speaker was barrister Louise Hicks, who handled the Shire’s case against the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in its dispute earlier this year over the disposal of thousands of dissolved acetylene cylinders on a property near Bacchus Marsh.

The Shire unsuccessfully sought to overturn an EPA clean-up order for the cylinders, which had been dumped illegally at the property, and was forced to pay $500,000 for the task when the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled against its application.

Cr Tatchell said the summit was widely recognised as a call to arms for councils and people in the waste disposal industry to work together to get on top of illegal dumping.

He said he was very pleased with the numbers that took part.

“You wouldn’t normally see these (numbers) at a regional event like this because it’s more of a regional problem,” Cr Tatchell said.

“Dumping is not as prevalent in the inner city; they bring it out here.”

Cr Tatchell said about 80 people beamed in for the online workshops, including not only mayors and CEOs but staff working in municipal operations.

“Whatever we do will be a joint collaboration between the regional councils and some city councils, which does tend to put more pressure on in terms of the (State Government) Minister and the EPA,” he said.

Cr Tatchell said a joint taskforce would probably be formed to attack the issue.

He said the large number of participants probably stemmed from Moorabool spreading the word to other councils about the waste cylinders dispute, because other councils could face the same problem.

He said he had already received about 70 emails since the summit from people wanting to be part of a coordinated campaign.

“It’s a bigger problem than even we thought,” he said, adding that metropolitan councils like Frankston and Monash also took part.

The Shire estimates that 76 per cent of illegal dumping within its boundaries originates from outside the Shire.