Ombudsman slams Casey, EPA over methane mess

By Bridget Brady
PUDDLES bubbling with gas reported to authorities in 2006 was just one of several missed warning signs in the lead-up to the Brookland Greens methane gas mess, the Ombudsman has found.
State Government Ombudsman George Bruewer last Thursday released his long-awaited report on the leaking gas debacle that unfolded at the Cranbourne estate in September last year and found the EPA and the City of Casey failed in their management duties.
At one stage in the estate, construction workers were able to light gas bubbles in the stormwater puddles with a cigarette lighter.
The EPA was heavily criticised in the report, with Mr Breuwer saying the authority failed in its job to protect the environment and should never have approved the Stevensons Road landfill in the first place because it was below the level of the water table. The report found EPA senior management were aware of warnings from an environmental auditor in July 2007 of an “imminent environmental hazard” and an “unacceptable risk” to residents due to methane gas, but it was not until the following year that it “began to appreciate the gravity of the situation”.
“In my view, the residents of the estate were placed at unnecessary risk by both the City of Casey and the EPA in failing to ensure that appropriate actions were taken in a timely manner to mitigate the risk of landfill gas escaping from the landfill into the estate.”
The report supported residents’ calls for compensation and law firm Slater and Gordon has asked the Casey to come to the negotiating table.
Both the council and the EPA said they had already implemented many of the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s report.