ENVIRONMENT Protection Authority Victoria is cracking down on Brooklyn’s worst dust emitters, launching its biggest blitz on the industrial precinct.
Twelve industry repeat offenders will be slapped with notices demanding immediate action.
The notices against the “dirty dozen” come as Brooklyn air quality has dropped to the worst levels experienced in years.
Dust levels have exceeded health standard limits 13 times since July, far worse than anywhere else in Melbourne and well above the national goal of fewer than five instances of exceeding the limit per year.
Driving through the precinct last week, EPA metro manager Richard Marks pointed out a number of operators allowing plumes of dust to escape operational boundaries.
He said they faced a simple choice: take their own action or be forced to comply with strict demands.
Offending industries include transport, container, landfill, recycling and waste companies.
In 2010, the EPA paid for consultants to help implement management controls such as using water trucks and wetting down stockpiles. But hundreds of tonnes of airborne dust are still created in the Brooklyn industrial precinct each year and 355 reports were made to the EPA about pollution in the area in the first six months of this year. “What we’ve found is that people have just gradually let these things slide, so what we’re looking for now is engineered controls — so whether you think about it or not, the control’s still there,” Mr Marks said.
This included forcing landowners to seal sites and requiring landscaping, driveway sealing and wheel washes.
On the Nose community group president Bruce Light said residents welcomed any action to reduce the impact of dust and odour.
“We’ve been working on this for a number of years and it’s still there. When you compare what’s going on here to the rest of Melbourne you realise just how bad it is.”
The ‘dirty dozen’
1. Michael Santalucia (containers)
2. Allied Container Services (containers)
3. Chalmers Industries (containers)
4. Western Tanker Services (containers)
5. Melbourne Reefer Services (containers)
6. Arrow Worldwide (containers)
7. Transpacific Cleanaway (landfill)
8. Transpacific Waste (landfill)
9. Western Land Reclamation (landfill)
10 Brooklyn Materials Recovery (recycling)
11. Delta (recycling)
12. Onesteel (recycling)
