MOORABOOL: $½M bill for toxic clean up
Specialist contractors have been on site cleaning up the toxic waste dumped on public land that Moorabool Shire Council has been directed to clean up at a cost of $500,000 .
The Council says that’s $25 for every ratepayer in the shire.
Works were expected to last until at least Friday, August 8, and traffic management was in place in the area around Lerderderg Park Rd in Merrimu.
Moorabool Council had challenged at the an Environment Protection Authority order that the Council must clean up the dumped trailers of dissolved acetylene cylinders, which are highly flammable and filled with asbestos.
Moorabool Council told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that it was not the source of the illegally dumped waste or responsible for it or its storage, and that the EPA should take responsibility for the cleanup in line with its statutory duties and powers assigned to them under the Environmental Protection Act.
“The EPA had the property the trailers originated from under surveillance for at least a year and had failed to act until the trailers turned up on Council-managed land,” said a Moorabool Council representative.
“While the EPA watched, Moorabool Shire stepped up to protect our community and clean up a mess we didn’t make,” said Mayor, Cr Paul Tatchell.
The cylinders were being removed from the trailers and inspected before being repacked into new truck trailers for safe transport to the sole facility at Stawell which can dispose of them correct.
Moorabool Shire is currently running a campaign targeting illegal dumping in the shire, particularly by builders and contractors coming into the area for work.