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Health Speeches Environment and Water | September 10, 2019

Kaniva Chemical Waste Dump Site

Victorian Parliament - September 10, 2019 Ms KEALY (Lowan) (13:23:33): Last week I spoke to Kaniva locals about the lack of information and action by the government to clean up the illegal toxic waste dump which threatens the local environment and waterways, agricultural produce and the health of those living in the Kaniva region. It has taken far too long for the government to act and locals have been kept in the dark, receiving only one briefing from the Environment Protection Authority Victoria since discovery of the site in July 2018. While it is a step forward that the EPA finally issued a clean-up notice to the landholder last week, much more still needs to be done by the government to ensure this site is cleared of all hazardous waste as soon as possible. On behalf of the Kaniva community I ask the minister: why has it taken so long for the EPA to act to catalogue the site and take action to issue a clean-up notice? Why haven’t adjacent landholders been notified what chemicals are stored on site so they can establish their own risk management plan? When will the CFA fire prevention burn be approved by the EPA, and will it occur before the upcoming fire season? When will the minister guarantee the site will be totally cleaned up to completely eliminate all risk for the Kaniva region?