Supreme Court orders $1 million for landfill breaches

The contraventions that caused the odour emissions were breaches of the General Environmental Duty (GED). That duty requires those who engage in activities that may give rise to risks of harm to human health or the environment, from pollution or waste, to take reasonable steps to minimise those risks.

The $1 million will be used to fund a project, or a series of projects, benefitting the community in the vicinity of the Hallam Road Landfill located at 274-310 Hallam Road in Hampton Park.

EPA received a significant volume of complaints from the public about odour believed to have been emitted from the Hallam Road Landfill in 2022 and 2023.

In response to these complaints and other observations from site visits during the relevant period, EPA issued civil penalty proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria against Veolia alleging a range of contraventions against Veolia of its operating licence and the GED. The alleged contraventions related primarily to management of leachate levels and landfill gas at the Hallam Road Landfill.

Odour complaints reduced significantly following the coverage of an open leachate drainage layer in one cell, and application of a sacrificial geomembrane barrier to sidewall drainage layers in three other cells, in August 2023. These sidewall drainage layers were part of a cell design that had been verified by an EPA-approved independent auditor, and relied on by Veolia.

The EPA-approved independent auditor has investigated operation of the site during the relevant period, and found that improvements have been made to management of the site, and that the active landfill cell is now unlikely to be a significant odour source provided it is operated in accordance with the management framework currently in place at the site. Veolia have undertaken some actions to address the risk of odour from landfill cells.

Veolia has admitted it breached its licence and failed to manage the risks of environmental harm occurring so far as reasonably practicable. Veolia has since made, and continues to make, further improvements to leachate management and landfill gas extraction infrastructure at the Hallam Road Landfill.

The Supreme Court ordered the company to publish the details of its offences and the penalty on their website, in addition to a media release on the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association. In addition to the payment of $1 million into a restorative justice project account, the company agreed to contribute $75,000 towards EPA’s legal costs of the Supreme Court proceeding and to undertake certain activities to improve regulatory compliance at the Hallam Road Landfill.

Members of the public can report pollution by calling EPA’s 24-hour hotline on 1300 372 842 or providing details online at epa.vic.gov.au/report-pollution/reporting-pollution