Goya Dmytryshchak
A rotten egg smell in Brooklyn and Altona has been traced to a leak in a Veolia waste management plant.
The Environment Protection Authority on Friday said it had received more than 50 complaints over two days about the odour.
Veolia operates a liquid and hazardous and chemical waste treatment facility in McDonald Road.
EPA western metropolitan regional manager Stephen Lansdell said the company had been directed to urgently fix the problem.
He said prompt reports from the public were vital in a case like this as EPA officers were able to use the callers’ addresses to map the affected area and the wind direction to help track down the odour source.
The problem with odour is always that the evidence can be taken away quickly by even a small breeze and the windy conditions over the past few days have made the source difficult to pinpoint.
“We’d like to thank the residents of Brooklyn and Altona for reporting the issue and providing such critical information,” he said.
“Community members are often our eyes, ears, and in this case our noses, to help us quickly track down pollution, prevent any impacts and hold industry to account.”
The company’s licence to operate includes responsibility for preventing any odour from leaving the premises, and EPA is investigating possible sanctions.
EPA officers found a suspected leak in one of the buildings, releasing odour that escaped the plant and was taken towards the residential area by the wind.
Report odour and other pollution to EPA’s 24 hour pollution hotline on 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842).
