Melissa Meehan, AAP
Angry residents in Melbourne’s west have accused the environmental watchdog and the state government of not doing enough to stop industrial fires in their area.
A chemical plant in Derrimut, a plastics warehouse in Deer Park and an abandoned rope factory in Footscray are among recent blazes.
Residents say enough is enough and have called on the Environment Protection Authority and the government to step in and help.
The Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance, a coalition of about 40 community groups and organisations from across Melbourne’s north and west, has written to the authority with support from lawyers at Environmental Justice Australia.
The letter calls on the environmental regulator to enforce the law, for proper funding to do its job and greater transparency on neighbourhood dangers.
More needed to be done to keep the community near dangerous sites informed, alliance spokesperson and former Greens MP Colleen Hartland said.
“Residents never know what’s at the end of the street until it blows up,” Ms Hartland told AAP.
She noted the scene of the Derrimut fire had received a number of compliance notices and numerous inspections, but residents had been none the wiser.
“There had been so many visits – what does it take to shut a place down?” Ms Hartland said.
The inferno at the Derrimut factory on July 10 was the city’s biggest industrial fire in years, with explosions that sent chemical drums flying into the air.
Drums containing kerosene, methylated spirits, methanol and other substances were stored at the site, fuelling the blaze.
More than three million litres of water and 40,000 litres of foam were used to fight the towering flames.
Environmental Justice Australia senior lawyer Virginia Trescowthick said communities in Melbourne’s west were already exposed to high levels of air pollution.
“The so-called environmental watchdog needs to lift its game,” Ms Trescowthick said.
“When it comes to industrial fires, it is clear that Victoria’s pollution and waste laws are not working as intended.”
A Victorian government spokesperson said the EPA was continuing to work with relevant authorities to investigate the cause of the Derrimut fire and would take action if laws had been broken.
“We’ve strengthened the EPA’s powers to identify and prosecute polluters – our strict environmental laws apply right across the state and are all addressed with urgency,” the spokesperson said.
The EPA said as a dangerous goods facility, the Derrimut site did not fall under its jurisdiction.
“While not an EPA-licensed facility, following the October 2023 fire at the site, EPA required proactive measures be taken by the facility to improve its fire risk management capability,” a spokesperson said.
“This work had been done before the July fire occurred and contributed to a better-than-expected outcome in terms of environment exposure and recovery.”
