Stink over smell

By Bridget Brady
THE Hallam Road tip is on the nose, but residents are not holding their breath waiting for something to be done.
Lynbrook resident Colleen Nazareth lives about a kilometre from the tip and said the smell from her house “stings your nose when you inhale.”
Mrs Nazareth said last week’s spate of sweltering temperatures caused the worst stench she had smelt in the five years she has lived at her house in the Lynbrook Heights Estate. “You could taste the smell the other night (last Wednesday),” she said.
Mrs Nazareth, who was a councillor for the former Cranbourne Shire, has written to Casey Council and rung the Environment Protection Authority about the matter.
She said she remembered an array of guarantees about the prevention of smell from the tip when it was discussed at council meetings when operations started in 1997.
She said if the right procedures were in place the tip, owned by Sita Environmental Solutions, would not smell.
The landfill takes solid inert waste, municipal waste and shredded tyres.
“There has to be a solution. And if it can be done, do it now. Between the EPA and the council someone has got to come up with some sort of a solution to the problem…but I just get the feeling it will be one of those ‘too hard’ ones.”
Mrs Nazareth said she made a conscious decision not to have air-conditioning in her home, but the smell from the tip prevented her from opening windows and doors to cool her house.
“I love it here and I want to stay. I want to open the window and enjoy it and get a reasonable night’s sleep during the hot weather. But we can’t even do that.”
Mrs Nazareth said she hoped the new council would “be more focused to do something about it.”
Mrs Nazareth said her whole family noticed the smell, and so did her neighbours.
“This is just crazy. Council and the EPA need to make sure the conditions are being adhered to.”
Lynbrook resident Stanley Thong, 18, said he noticed the smell but always kept the doors closed.
“You never get used to a smell but you just deal with it,” he said. It’s a tip. You can’t pick it up and move it.”
Another resident Katey Koelmeyer, 21, said the smell was at its worst during the morning.
“When people come to visit they ask me how I put up with it. But I’m used to it now.”
EPA spokesperson Ruth Ward said the site had some recent problems with the odour. “However, the company has made steps to address these, including removing compost material.
“However, should the efforts not be effective, EPA will require the company to take further action.”