EPA ‘code of silence’ on cylinders: Shire

MOORABOOL Shire Council claims repeated Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) about illegally dumped industrial waste near Bacchus Marsh have been denied.

The Shire on Tuesday announced it would now appeal to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner in its efforts to find out the circumstances behind the dumping.

In a statement, the Shire accused the EPA of maintaining a code of silence on the issue, which it described as a “contamination crisis.”

The Shire was last month forced to pay about $500,000 to clean up truck trailers of dissolved acetylene cylinders – which it says are highly flammable and are filled with asbestos – illegally dumped on council-managed land at Merrimu, just east of Bacchus Marsh.

It claims the EPA had the property the trailers originated from under surveillance for at least a year and had failed to act until the trailers appeared on the council-managed land.

The site is a road reserve outside a property on Lerderderg Park Road, Merrimu.

Moorabool Shire mayor Cr Paul Tatchell has been outspoken about the issue, angry that the Shire was forced to clean up a mess the council did not create.

“Our ratepayers have been slugged half a million bucks to do this work, and the EPA won’t even be transparent with us about how the situation got to this point,” Cr Tatchell said.

“We’ve stepped up to protect our community and clean up a mess we didn’t make, and they don’t even have the decency to share all the information relevant to this situation with us.

“What have they got to hide?”

The Shire is aware of at least 1000 more of the cylinders still on the property.

But in a statement on Wednesday, the EPA disputed the Shire’s claims and said it had received just one FOI request from the Shire.

“On two occasions, the council was asked to amend the scope of its request to meet the requirement that it not involve an unreasonable amount of work, which in this case could take several years,” it said.

“The council’s replies did not meet that requirement.”

The statement said the EPA was not able to provide further details because an active criminal investigation of the dumping is still being carried out.