Dial-A-Dump (EC) Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Bingo Industries Limited, has been fined $280,000 by the NSW Land and Environment Court, after the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) received around 750 complaints from residents in Sydney’s west, about offensive rotten egg gas odours in 2021.
The Court also ordered Dial-A-Dump (EC) Pty Ltd to pay the EPA’s investigation costs of $42,575 and the EPA’s legal costs, still to be agreed by the parties but noted in the Court’s judgment to be approximately $365,000.
The odours came from the company’s Eastern Creek landfill between March and June 2021 and were caused by inadequate landfill gas extraction systems.
Over four months residents in Minchinbury, Eastern Creek and Horsley Park were regularly subjected to the offensive odours.
The Court handed down the penalties after noting many residents affected by the odour suffered very real psychological and physical harm, as well as considerable harm to their amenity for several months.
NSW Executive Director Regulatory Operations, Jason Gordon said adequate controls should have been in place to collect landfill gas and protect the community.
“It is not acceptable for residents to suffer for months ongoing odours from industrial neighbours that impact their wellbeing and day-to-day,” Mr Gordon said.
“Waste facilities have obligations under their licence to ensure potential odours have measures in place to counter any odour emissions.
“We know this incident was very traumatising for surrounding communities but we want to thank them for their assistance in securing this outcome. Their help was integral to our investigation and enabled us to identify the source and take action.”
Since the prosecution commenced, there have been limited odour complaints from the facility. The EPA will continue to conduct regular inspections, odour surveys and air monitoring to ensure that Bingo Industries minimises the risk of offensive odours impacting the local community.
The Court ordered that half of the $280,000 penalty be paid to Blacktown City Council for an environmental restoration project in Minchinbury and that the conviction and penalty be published in the Sydney Morning Herald and other publications. Dial-A-Dump was also ordered to undertake a letterbox drop publicising the conviction and penalty to all properties located in 66 streets in suburbs surrounding the facility.
If you have any odour complaints in your community, please contact the 24-hour Environment Line on 131 555 or email info@epa.nsw.gov.au.
To learn more about other EPA odour investigations, please visit: https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/working-together/community-engagement/updates-on-issues/odour-investigations
Contact details:
media@epa.nsw.gov.au