The Victorian Ombudsman has censured the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for its lack of community consultation.
Unveiling her report on EPA’s decision-making process for approving relocation of spoil from the West Gate Tunnel Project following the discovery of the toxic chemical PFAS in groundwater samples in June 2019, the Ombudsman, Deborah Glass described PFAS as a class of toxic chemicals described as ‘forever chemicals’ round the world.
She said it was so named because it had the ability to build up in the environment and in the human body.
“While the EPA complied with its legislation, its communication of decisions fell well short of reasonable community expectations,” Ms Glass said.
“This failure to provide appropriate information and opportunities for communities to participate when making its approval decisions for sites to receive the spoil for the Project was unreasonable.”
She said the EPA’s lack of meaningful engagement caused unnecessary social, psychological and financial stress to the impacted communities.
Ms Glass found EPA was under pressure to get the Project back on track and helped the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning develop bespoke regulations to enable potential sites to receive the spoil.
“It is vital that the EPA must not only be independent but be seen to be independent to maintain public confidence in the objectivity of its decisions,” the Ombudsman said.
“The EPA assessed the danger was likely to be low but adopted a cautious approach to the management of the spoil, requiring all landfill operators to safely contain PFAS at 10 times the amount likely to be present.”
She said the EPA’s decisions were compatible with the right to life and the rights of the child, but the Authority failed to convince the community of this.
Commending the EPA’s actions to rebuild community trust, Ms Glass said that since March, the Authority had tested the excavated spoil and, since April, had published the results on its website.
“In addition to publishing the test results, the EPA has begun a series of monthly information sessions for the community near the Bulla site, where spoil is already being disposed,” she said
Chief Executive of EPA, Lee Miezis welcomed the Ombudsman’s report and accepted all four of her recommendations.
“We acknowledge that shortcomings in our engagement approach has caused distress,” Mr Miezis said.
“For that we are sorry.”
He said the EPA would use the Ombudsman’s report and recommendations to ensure the improvements being made to the Authority continued.
The Ombudsman’s 84-page Investigation into Environment Protection Authority decisions on West Gate Tunnel Project spoil disposal can be accessed at this PS News link.
