By Alesha Capone
A decision to approve the Werribee tip expansion has been described as “seriously flawed” by its opponents.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month gave the green light for the council to open four new landfill cells at the Wests Road tip.
But the director of the Western Region Environment Centre, Harry van Moorst, has slammed the decision as “anti-social” and “anti-sustainable”.
“We are very disappointed and angry at this … decision by VCAT, which will almost triple the size of the landfill,” Mr van Moorst said.
“VCAT ignored the auditor’s assessment, supported by community submissions, that the risk of odour and groundwater contamination was high.”
Mr van Moorst said the VCAT decision would extend the tip’s lifespan for another 26 years, with the site expected to accept up to one million tonnes of rubbish per year by 2040.
WREC took the proposed tip expansion to VCAT after the state Environment Protection Authority (EPA) granted Wyndham council permission to open the four cells at the 236-hectare site in October last year.
The approval will allow the council to extend a section of existing above- and below-ground landfill, to store putrescible waste, solid inert waste and shredded tyres, up to 24 metres above the existing ground level.
However, VCAT ordered a new works condition be included: “In order to minimise the potential for odour issues at the adjacent dwellings to the east and the new residential development to the north [of the tip], the area of the tipping face in cells 5a, 5b and 5c shall be no greater than 900 square metres.”
Wyndham council’s city operations director Stephen Thorpe said the “tipping face” was the area where waste was deposited and compacted.
“We currently use a 600 square metre tipping face and the legal maximum is 1200 square metres,” he said.
“Given that the EPA has allowed us to use a tipping face 300 square metres larger than our current one, we are confident that this will give us adequate space to accept waste in the future.”
Mr Thorpe said the council was “very satisfied that VCAT ruled in our favour on this matter”.
Mr van Moorst said WREC did not have the funds to take the tip fight to the Supreme Court. However, he said they would continue to raise the matter with the relevant state government ministers and opposition members.
