Tumut Waste Pty Ltd has been ordered to pay $520,000 in fines and legal costs by the Land and Environment Court, following prosecution by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for emitting offensive odours at the Bellettes Landfill in Gilmore.
Between late June and September 2023, the EPA received more than 200 community complaints about sulphur or rotten egg odours coming from the landfill.
NSW EPA Director Operations, Scott Kidd, said the odours were a result of the landfill operator’s failure to appropriately manage leachate (landfill liquid runoff) and a failure to undertake landfill gas and odour mitigation actions.
“This is a significant penalty which should serve as a reminder to landfill operators that they have an obligation to the community to ensure their operations are run to the highest environmental standards,” Mr Kidd said.
“In this case, one resident reported that the stench was so bad it caused them to dry retch.
“Other community members reported suffering headaches, irritated eyes, nausea, coughing and disrupted sleep.
“We responded swiftly to this issue, conducting multiple site inspections, installing odour monitors throughout the community and directing Tumut Waste to install a landfill gas extraction system to capture the gas before it reached the community which significantly reduced odour complaints once installed in September 2023.
“Offensive odours can cause significant distress in a community, and the EPA will continue to take strong action where landfills fail in their environmental responsibilities.
“I want to thank the community for diligently reporting the odours to our Environment Line via [email protected] which helped make this prosecution successful.”
As part of the response to the odours, the EPA instructed Tumut Waste to install a landfill gas extraction system to capture the gas before it reached the community. This was installed in September 2023 and significantly reduced the amount of odour complaints.
The court has ordered total fines of $270,000 for breaches of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, with $135,000 to be paid to the Environmental Trust.
In addition, Tumut Waste has been ordered to pay $250,000 in EPA legal costs, publish notices of its conviction in the Sydney Morning Herald and Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser and notify properties within 5km of its premises of its conviction.
Contact details:
EPA MEDIA | DANIELLE WILLIAMS | 0448 196 606
24-hour Media Line (02) 9995 6415 [email protected]