A FOUL smell emanating from wool processing waste dumped near Melton West properties is becoming unbearable at night, according to frustrated residents.
John Forrester, who lives near the site on the corner of Harkness and Porteus roads, said winds were blowing strong fumes into his home.
Residents said the waste from a Moorabool processing plant was affecting their quality of life and claimed the waste had not been tested. But the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and the company responsible for the waste, Victorian Wool Processors, said it had been analysed,
with soil tests carried out by Moorabool Council confirming there were no toxic chemicals in the waste.
As reported by the Weekly, the waste was moved to private land in Melton after Moorabool Council gave the company
21 days to remove it from a site in Long Forest Road. Residents there had feared the waste was contaminating aquifers and rivers in the area.
Mr Forrester said he had contacted the EPA and Melton Council about the offensive odour. “It is industrial waste and, yes, it will act as a fertiliser, but it is going to give off a lot of fumes when it’s breaking down,” he said.
EPA and Melton Council officers visited the original site last Thursday.
Victorian Wool Processors general manager David Ritchie
said the soil had been tested by independent laboratories a number of times over the past few years for a “number of heavy metals, compounds and chemicals”.
“These results were given to EPA Victoria and they accept that the product is not toxic and poses little environmental risk.”
But Mr Forrester said the waste should never have been dumped near Melton homes.
“If it is such a great fertiliser, why don’t they bag it up and sell it to the public?”
he said.
-Andria Cozza
