Noise, smells spark alarm

Pollution concerns prompt 1500 complaints in South West

NEARLY 1500 pollution reports were made by residents of the South West region to the state’s environment protection body, a new report has revealed.

The Environment Protection Authority of Victoria’s 2016-17 annual report revealed one third, 455, of all complaints from the area related to odour.

Noise complaints were the second highest category of complaints for the region followed by smoke, water, dust, waste and business notifications. There were a total of 14 emergency reports.

More than 10,000 pollution reports, and almost 200 emergency notifications, were received around the state during the same 12-month period.

According to EPA South West regional manager Carolyn Francis there were a number of major events in the region including response and recovery work for significant flooding across the region in September 2016.

Thirty-eight compliance assessments of licensed sites across the region were undertaken along with increased issuing of sanctions for those who broke the law, including a cream spill in Colac.

“EPA has had a very busy year in the South West. Pollution reports, planning referrals and EPA field inspection numbers have all increased steadily over recent years,” Ms Francis said.

The EPA also further developed Victoria’s incident air monitoring service and can now deploy equipment to an incident within four hours of notification, improving community access to air quality and health information during emergency incidents.