Residents plan group action as Kealba tip fire rages out of control

A David and Goliath battle is brewing over a burning tip in Melbourne’s west that families say is making them sick.

A picture of Kealba landfill, which was once a quarry before the Barro Group won planning approval from VCAT in 2013 to turn it into a tip. Picture: supplied

The stench of burning rubbish from Kealba tip — which one resident has likened to “dead bodies” — is so bad homeowners as far away as St Albans say it is making them sick.

The fire at the tip — run by Barro Group — has been burning for more than a year, and with summer approaching, fed up residents say they’re taking the fight against the multi million-dollar company into their own hands.

Kealba mum Siobhan Brister said she was dreading the warmer months because she predicted the smell — which she likened to “dead bodies” — would get worse.

She posted to Facebook to gauge interest for community-backed legal action against Barro and said she was appalled the Environment Protection Authority and Brimbank Council seemed to have left residents to fend for themselves.

“It smells like dead bodies. It’s revolting, it smells like a sewer. On three different angles the wind blows we cop the stench,” Mrs Brister said.

St Albans resident Nicole Power erected a sign on her fence this week urging people to lodge complaints about the tip to the EPA.

She said she couldn’t sleep some nights due to the smell coming through her windows, and claimed the EPA had failed to hold Barro to account.

The council also refused to take action against the tip operator and simply advised residents to contact the EPA, she said.

“When I’m not sleeping, my mental health is suffering,” Ms Power said.

“It’s so strong I can taste it and it’s woken me up and kept me awake all night.”

Nicole Power of St Albans erected this sign on her fence to protest the smell coming from Barro Group's Kealba landfill.

Mrs Brister, a cancer survivor, said she, her husband and their eight-year-old daughter suffered headaches and hayfever she believed was caused by the odour.

She said they’d rarely experienced such symptoms prior to the fire and that her and husband had dismantled a Co2 monitor in their home because it was constantly firing off warnings about the poor air quality inside the house.

She slammed the EPA’s decision to hand over air quality monitoring responsibility to Barro, which she said was a conflict of interest.

“I just wonder who else has gotten sick?” Mrs Brister said.

“For them (Barro and the EPA) to say the air is clean, that’s bullsh — t.”

Both Mrs Brister and Ms Power called on Barro to close the Kealba tip until the fires were put out, but St Albans resident Johnny, who did not want his surname published, said he wanted it closed permanently.

Barro had already been fined $8261 for breaches of its landfill operating licence at the site, he said, and Johnny said he’d woken up in the middle of the night vomiting because of the smell.

“How many times are they going to stuff up and get away with it,” he said.

“I’ve even worked at a tip at Braybrook … and I tell you, the smell is nothing like this.”

More than 660 objections were lodged with Brimbank Council when Barro first applied for a permit in 2010 to turn the former Kealba quarry into landfill.

Brimbank Council refused the proposal and initially so did the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, but it was given the green light by the tribunal upon review in 2013.

Brimbank state Labor MP Natalie Suleyman said she lived near the tip and she was sick and tired of the smell.

She stopped short of backing legal action against the tip and questioned if the smell could cause health problems, but she said she understood people were frustrated.

Ms Suleyman said the community was initially told by Barro Group the fires would be put out within three months.

A year on there was no telling when the fires would be put out and she said she’d been in constant contact with the community, the EPA and Barro about the issue and had raised the matter in parliament.

Kealba quarry was a popular hiking spot for some families before it was turned into a tip. Picture: Bear Mitch

Barro spokesman Steve Murphy said excavation works to cool burning rubbish would temporarily halt from December 23 to January 4.

Some staff would remain on site to monitor air quality, he said, and rubbish would be sealed inside excavation points using soil and clay to suppress odour.

“Toxic waste, chemicals, are not and never have been deposited at the Kealba landfill, that’s a fact,” Mr Murphy said.

“We’ve been conducting constantly, since December last year, air quality monitoring.

“What they tell us is the quality of the air against standardised and set measures and benchmarks shows us the air quality has always been good.”

Additional staff and equipment had been sourced by the company in the past year to excavate burning landfill, which he said was mainly comprised of timber, concrete and other building rubble.

The company was working hard to put out the fire, the cause of which Mr Murphy said was unknown, but he said no date could yet be provided as to when the blaze would be extinguished.

Brimbank Council director city development Kelvin Walsh said the Barro Group was charged with monitoring air quality at the site as of December last year and the council had written to Barro, the EPA, Ms Suleyman and the State Government about the issue.

When contacted by the Leader, the EPA pointed to a press release published on its website.

In the release, western regional manager Stephen Lansdell said the EPA issued a regulatory notice to Barro to ensure smell was kept to a minimum over Christmas.

The EPA expected fire “hot spots” would be fully extinguished early next year, he said.

The Leader this month launched its Clean Up Brimbank campaign to shine a spotlight on issues related to crime, education, health, unemployment and the environment.

Anyone who wishes to add a clean air sign to their fence or join community action against the landfill can visit Brimbank Community Against Barro Landfill on Facebook.