News - Cranbourne Star News - 22nd February 2024

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CRANBOURNE

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Thursday, 22 February, 2024

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Smooth travels as lanes open Major works on the Hall Road upgrade are now complete, nine months ahead of schedule, benefiting drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists with improved journeys in Melbourne’s outer south-east. Story page 4

Jumping for joy are Major Road Projects Authority’s Brendan Pauwels with Carrum MP Sonya Kilkenny, Minister for Transport Infrastructure Danny Pearson, and Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards. 389521 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS

What’s that smell? By Violet Li Surrounding communities of Stevensons Brothers Industries (SBI) landfill have been disgusted by the latest surge of a reportedly ‘rotten egg’ odour, but the cause is yet to be identified. On the first weekend of February, the Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) received 73 odour incident reports in the vicinity and started the investigation. When inquired, a spokesperson from EPA said it received a notifiable incident report from SBI on Saturday 3 February that there had been a potential failure of odour management infrastructure at the site and that several actions had been taken to fix the problem. “However, those actions did not immediately rectify the problem and we received

community reports complaining of a rotten egg smell,” they said. “Our landfill experts are conducting odour surveillance around the facility and in the community. That is continuing until we are satisfied that SBI has the problem under control.” A different story seems to have been presented at an SBI Community Consultative Committee (CCC) meeting held on Tuesday 6 February, where representatives from SBI reportedly stated that the hydrogen sulphide (H2S) monitors on site did not show any sign of detection, according to an update from the CCC on the meeting. After conducting odour surveys onsite and offsite, SBI believed the odour could not be attributed to the landfill and suggested the origin

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was the sheep from the property directly next door to them, according to the CCC’s update. SBI stated on its website that five full-time SBI employees had had their noses calibrated in accordance with EPA guidelines. CCC member and Brookland Greens resident Nick Ter-kuile, present at the meeting, said it was the first time the community had ever heard about sheep. “This [the landfill odour incident] has been going on for 18 months. So I don’t think anybody could believe the sheep was true,” he said. “Residents have smelled the odour constantly for the last two years. We know what it is better than any others. “Most people and I will take what EPA says, not the SBI because it’ll be like believing the person had broken into your house saying that

they didn’t do it.” While the mention of sheep seemed quite ‘laughable’ to the community, Mr Ter-kuile pointed out that no authority had been able to identify what the issue was. Representatives from SBI told the meeting that they reported to the EPA - on the day of the most odour complaints - they changed a carbon filter in their leachate storage tank headspace as a precautionary action. An update from SBI on its website on Saturday 10 February noted that ‘identifying alternate odour sources to that of SBI was not done to shift blame’. “These are qualitative observations by suitably qualified and trained personnel,” the update wrote. Continued page 12

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