Foul-smelling wool processing waste emanating from land in Long Forest has again raised the ire of residents and Moorabool council.
Responding to questions from four residents at last Wednesday’s council meeting, chief executive Rob Croxford gave Victorian Wool Processors until 4pm last Friday to detail plans to “ameliorate or remove the odour” or, he said, it was likely a prohibition notice would be issued.
“In short, we are desperate,” resident Julie Dawson told councillors.
As reported by the Weekly, in April last year the Laverton North-based company was ordered by the council to remove waste that had been dumped on its property in Long Forest Road.
Residents complained the daily smell from the wool sludge was ‘‘like putting your head into a blood and bone bucket”.
The company shifted the waste to land in Melton West but returned to using the Long Forest site after a successful appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on July 16 this year.
Lawyer Robert Toth, representing VWP, told the Weekly that VCAT had confirmed the use of land for agriculture in the farming zone, which “included the spreading of fertiliser generated as a waste by-product”.
“VCAT further determined that the spreading of waste by-product, in the manner and quantity proposed, was not a separate use of land and did not require a planning permit,” he said.
Moonah Drive resident Bill Mansell (pictured in brown jacket), whose home backs on to the site, claimed that residents were “not aware or advised of the VCAT hearing and had no ability to seek restrictions based on odour”.
“The use of product stored elsewhere for at least 12 months has not reduced the potential for off-site amenity impacts such as odour,” Mr Mansell said.
“It’s making it difficult to inhabit our own homes. You can’t open windows, hang washing, you can’t let the kids run around outside … you can even taste it in your mouth.”
Mr Toth said his client was working with Moorabool council to investigate ways to minimise impact.
In a letter to the residents group on September 10, Mr Toth said that the farm’s caretaker indicated that although there was some initial odour around the immediate area of spreading, “the odour is not throughout the whole of the property and dissipates quickly once spread”.
