With more people working from home there was an increase in the number of pollution reports to EPA about environmental incidents particularly noise, dust and smoke issues in 2020-2021, according to figures in the EPA Annual Report.
"EPA encourages the reporting of pollution events, and with people working where they live, they seem to be noticing and reporting more often," said EPA Acting CEO Suzy Neilan.
"Despite the pandemic, EPA has maintained a strong operational presence and increased the number of emergency events that it was able to attend. These events range from localised issues such as discolouring of waterways, to major events such as fires at waste facilities," said Ms Neilan.
For the reportable pollution categories of dust, noise, odour, smoke, waste and water, Gippsland region recorded 1,019 pollution reports in 2020-2021 against 852 in 2019-2020; the north east region 1,128 last year against the previous year's 1,023; south metro region 4,477 against 3,503 ; western metro region 4,932 against 2,207; north metro region 4,000 against 2,183; north west region 1,165 against 785; and south western region showing a decrease of 1,916 reports against 2,235 in 2019-2020. The results also include emergency and business reports as well as other reports.
"We have a zero tolerance approach to poor management of fire risk and will continue to do so. Our intention for the future is to maintain our responsiveness and build on other initiatives such as the EPA's Fire Prevention Program which saw more than 310 inspections of waste recyclers in 2021 leading to the issuing of 218 remedial notices," said Ms Neilan.
"The new Environment Protection Act 2017 was introduced in July 2021, which included the introduction of Waste Tracker, an electronic waste tracking system to significantly improve waste tracking and management in the state, and we continue to remediate high risk sites like the illegal waste dump at Lemon Springs in the state's north west, and the Broderick Rd Lara site which is nearing completion.
We completed the clean up of the former Bradbury chemical facility in Campbellfield in late 2021. Bradbury was the scene of one of the state's worst ever chemical fires in 2019. "
Other initiatives include a major expansion of our air quality monitoring service AirWatch which gives localised air quality data right across the state (https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/for-community/airwatch) and again this summer we are providing daily water quality monitoring for 36 beaches around Port Phillip Bay and four popular swim spots on the Yarra.
"The new Environment Protection Act makes the prevention of pollution, under the General Environmental Duty, the responsibility of all of us and we want to hear from people who think they may have seen pollution or reasonably think it might happen. Our 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842) contact centre is always open," said Ms Neilan.
