Moorabool council claims its requests for transparency about toxic waste illegally dumped on public land have ‘fallen on deaf ears’ with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
Now, the council plans to appeal to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, as according to Moorabool, freedom of information (FOI) requests to the EPA have been denied three times.
As reported by Star Weekly, an EPA clean-up notice was issued to council requiring it to remove about 1000 to 1250 dissolved acetylene cylinders on pallets in two trailers parked on the nature strip of 210 Lerderderg Park Road, Merrimu – which according to Moorabool, costed more than $500,000 clean up.
The council alleges the EPA had the property the trailers originated from under surveillance for at least a year and did not act until the trailers turned up on council-managed land.
Moorabool mayor Paul Tatchell expressed his disappointment with the EPA’s responses to the council’s requests.
“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,” he said.
“What have they got to hide?”
According to Moorabool, there are at least a thousand more similar cylinders on the property itself, outside of the nature strip where the trailers were dumped.
An EPA Victoria spokesperson said the authority has received one FOI request from Moorabool on the issue.
“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. The council’s replies did not meet that requirement,” the spokesperson said.
“EPA is unable to provide further details, as there is an active criminal investigation still under way.”
