Page 188 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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Is the tip operator taking sufficient steps to minimise the smell? Why cannot the ACT government take action to stop the smell? There was some comment earlier in January that maybe the operator at the tip may be putting in drainage piping and whether that was exposing some of the tip face. The question some residents asked is, “Why would you do that at the hottest time of the year, the time of year when many residents are on holidays and trying to enjoy outdoor spaces?” These are the types of questions that residents in Tuggeranong have and that they want the ACT government to answer.
They are the people that have the right to enjoy their outdoor spaces without any foul smell that, to date, the ACT government does not seem to care about, have a clue how to find out what it is or have a clue how to get rid of it. Is it really that difficult to communicate openly with local residents about an issue that is affecting them and their families for two years in a row? What public consultation, if any, has the government conducted in relation to its planned expansion of the Mugga Lane tip?
One Tuggeranong resident mentioned that if they had known about the planned expansion they would have put in a written submission. But my question is: how did the government conduct public consultation on the tip expansion? It is just another example of this government’s poor communication with everyday Canberrans. These preceding comments are made on the basis that these residents believe the smell is coming from the tip. If it is not coming from the tip, where is it coming from? It should be the government’s responsibility to answer those questions.
The motion today calls on the ACT government to take action on this issue, not just brush it aside. More recently, when we have passed on comments from residents about the smell—for example, a resident may have said, “I smelt it at 7.30 this morning at my place”—what appears to be happening is that some time during the course of the business day the EPA go to that area and say they cannot find a smell, which is not surprising given the way that odours can move.
We all know the difficulty in identifying odours and that they move in mysterious ways, if you like. Not many people at all, except at the very height of the problem, have said that the smell is there during the middle of the business day. What they have said is that it is there at 6.30, 7.30 and up to 8.30 in the morning and again in the evening. I am not an expert in this but potentially sending the EPA there during the course of a normal business day is probably never going to identify that the odour is present, because it is not what residents are reporting. Just because it might suit the EPA to go there during the day does not mean that they are going to be able to identify the smell.
You can see from the interactive map that I have created the range of locations where the smell has been identified. You can see that it is generally over the ridge from the tip. We are not talking about something immediately next door; it is a couple of kilometres away. People who bought in that area would never have expected the smell from the tip to reach their homes. Heaven only knows what it might be like to have a cemetery on the other side of the hill closer to the tip. Imagine going to visit your dearly departed and being hit with a smell like that. It just does not bear thinking about.
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