EPA issues prevention notice to Veolia over allegedly leaking containers

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) issued the prevention notice on May 9 over waste containers that were allegedly spilling leachate at the company's Crisps Creek rail intermodal near Tarago. The company transports Sydney's putrescible waste from the site to the Woodlawn bioreactor on Collector Road.

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Veolia has been ordered to improve the quality of containers to prevent recurrence and implement a tighter monitoring regime. Further, trucks carrying a particular type of container to Woodlawn must be escorted to ensure nil spillage from the waste load.

"It's about time," Tarago resident and self described environmental campaigner, Paige Davis said.

"...Since March, 2022 multiple members of the community have filmed the rubbish juice leaking from Veolia shipping containers. Statements as well as footage have been submitted to the EPA. Nothing happened and the leaks continue to this day."

Ms Davis said maximum $15,000 fines and penalty notices "meant nothing to the company," which viewed them as "the price of doing business."

She told The Post that people were horrified by the leaking containers and the "constant smell" from the bioreactor. Further, Ms Davis said they had no confidence in compliance monitoring if Veolia's $600 million waste to energy facility was approved.

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"It is clear that no amount of 'strict' licence conditions put in place by government regulators will ensure that Veolia will meet its environmental regulations, not for a bioreactor and not for a toxic waste incinerator," she said.

The company did not answer several of The Post's questions but said in a statement that its waste transportation "is one of the most environmentally sustainable in the world."

"By utilising the rail network and best available container technology, we prevent thousands of vehicle movements, limit emissions and minimise our impact on the environment," a spokesperson said.

"All of our containers are designed with leak prevention seals and are routinely inspected upon loading and receival. Our maintenance program allows for quick repair of issues as they occur, and provides a means of proactively testing solutions as they become available. We have upgraded 80 containers in the past 12 months, with a further 100 coming by the end of the year."

She said the company was grateful for the feedback and the newly established community liaison committee was already sharing insights that would help improve activities.

The latest notice does not attract a fine but Veolia must pay the EPA's administrative costs of issuing the notice.

EPA officers inspected the intermodal in May, 2021 in response to community complaints about leaking shipping containers, the notice stated.

"Officers observed leachate leaking from the bottom of the door seal of a waste container being handled by a container fork as a lateral motion was being imparted," the prevention notice stated.

This was despite Veolia pledging a year earlier to implement additional measures to prevent leakage. The EPA issued a 'show cause' notice to the company in June, 2021 over alleged breaches of a licence condition. This required that all containers must prevent emission of offensive odours and be water tight to stop leachate leaking during transport and handling.

The prevention notice stated that Veolia blamed a faulty locking mechanism on the '500 series' container for the most recent leaks. It committed to replacing them with '600 series' types. Further, it pledged an audit to remove faulty containers, and undertake visual and independent inspection every two years by a third party.

Nevertheless, Veolia received more complaints.

"Between March 18 and June 20, 2022, four separate community complaints were received by the EPA alleging leachate leaking from the lower door seal of legacy 300 and 500 series containers that were in transit along Bungendore Road en route to the Veolia bioreactor," the prevention notice stated.

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Veolia promised further corrective actions but also requested that the licence condition be varied. While it accepted responsibility for preventing odour and leachate escape, it asked that the company not be found in breach if it had complied with its obligations but the containers leaked regardless, "due to circumstances beyond its control."

The EPA refused this request and found that Veolia's earlier promised visual inspection of containers "were not effective" in identifying or preventing alleged leachate leaks before the community complaints in March and June, 2022.

It also stated that water tight integrity and performance testing on the containers was not part of quality assurance. In addition, containers were only "periodically" inspected visually.

The EPA directed that Veolia not use series 500 containers to transport its waste unless they had been tested for water tightness and had passed a performance test. Series 300 containers had to undergo the same testing regime and be followed by an escort to the bioreactor to monitor the load.

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The Authority reiterated that the licence did not permit leakage of any container used to transport waste to the facility.

The EPA also ordered that within two weeks of the notice, Veolia had to engage an independent person approved by the Authority to undertake a quality assurance program for containers used to transport waste.

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