Melton council and Kororoit MP Marlene Kairouz have ramped up their opposition to the expansion of the Ravenhall landfill.
The Environment Protection Authority last month announced it had granted waste management giant Cleanaway a works approval to expand the landfill, albeit on a much smaller scale than requested.
The company and residents are awaiting a decision by Planning Minister Richard Wynne on whether to grant a planning permit.
Melton and Brimbank residents last month expressed outrage at the EPA, saying the environment watchdog had “let the west down”.
In a letter to the Stop the Tip committee, Ms Kairouz said she was “extremely disappointed” with EPA’s decision and had been making “strong representations” to Premier Daniel Andrews, Mr Wynne and Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio.
“I have made it clear … that the EPA has ignored its own guidelines,” Ms Kairouz said. “By allowing the expansion of the tip and externalised buffers, we risk Cleanaway polluting our community.
“It also ignores the Ombudsman’s recommendation, which clearly state the buffers must be internalised on the polluter’s land.”
At last week’s council meeting, councillors voted in favour of writing to the state government and the state opposition “reiterating” its objection to the landfill expansion.
Council officers said the council had opposed the initial application on a “range of amenity grounds and the inconsistencies of long-term landfilling resources”.
The EPA’s works approval for the landfill expansion limits the number of landfill cells to seven on the southern end (Cleanaway had applied for 16 new cells in the north and south); grants landfill area of 96 hectares, with 23 million cubic metres of airspace (the original application requested a landfill area of 210 hectares, with 53 million cubic metres of airspace); and has limited the tip’s lifespan to 13 years (Cleanaway had requested 30).
