Background

EPA is taking action to clean up an alleged illegal waste dump at a large rural property in Lemon Springs, about 15 km south of Kaniva on the Kaniva–Edenhope Road.

The property is in the municipality of West Wimmera Shire Council.

We have been working at this site since July 2018, when it was referred to us by Victoria Police.

We located about 32 sites of interest on the property where we identified that industrial waste was buried underground. EPA appointed Enviropacific as the principal contractor to conduct the clean up and remediation works in December 2020. EPS started works in February 2021 and completed the removal of waste from the site in September 2023. Environmental assessments and auditing is currently underway to assess any residual contamination at the property.

The safety of the community continues to be our priority.

At the site, EPA is continuing to:

• test for any groundwater contamination
• monitor for any offsite impacts, and to date, nothing has been detected
• investigate how the material arrived and then was disposed of onsite
• make sure the site is secure
• survey using our drones
• create a safe working environment for EPA staff and contractors.

Current site remediation

We have completed the removal of waste material from Lemon Springs and have removed all nonessential buildings and equipment. 

We have filled all 32 burial sites with clean soil. We will continue to undertake environmental assessments such as groundwater monitoring and undertake an environmental audit of the site.

We have removed more than:

• 7,430 tonnes of hazardous waste
• 16,650 tonnes of contaminated soil 
• 52,323 acetylene cylinders.

If it was possible, we treated contaminated soil onsite and used it to fill the dig sites. We have moved all 52,323 acetylene cylinders to the new recycling facility operated by Enviropacific in Stawell.  

On Wednesday 21 June, we held a community meeting at the Kaniva Community Hub to share updates. You can view a recording of our session. 

We have also published a video showing the Lemon Springs site post waste removal.

Our thanks to the community for your involvement and support as we worked through this project. 

We continue to focus on ensuring the site is safe and not posing a risk to human health and the environment as well as taking legal action.

For more information:

• view our latest progress video
• visit our website 
• call 1300 372 842
• email northwest.mailbox@epa.vic.gov.au.

If you know someone who wants these updates, they can contact northwest.mailbox@epa.vic.gov.au.

How EPA investigated and what we found

Among the tools we have used during this investigation are drones with ground-penetrating radar (GPR). When we fly these over the site they can tell us if there is anything unusual buried. The GPR found about 32 sites on the property where we suspect containers holding industrial waste are buried. Further monitoring and detailed site investigations by EPA and EPS have determined precise locations and size of the burial sites and have also found a number of other locations where small amounts of waste is buried. We have now completed investigations and believe we have discovered all chemical waste on the property.

In late 2019, we partially excavated three major areas where we suspected waste was buried. We took samples for analysis to find out what had been buried. Site excavations began in April 2021, with the first site completed in June 2021. 

Enforcement action

EPA issued a clean up notice to the owner of the site, Graham Leslie White, in 2019. As a number of the milestones were not met, we asked Mr White to show cause why EPA should not use our regulatory powers to take over the management of the property. Mr White failed to show cause.

On 3 December 2019 EPA exercised its powers under the Environment Protection Act 1970, and took over management of the site. EPA secured, monitored and removed all hazardous waste from the property.

In late March EPA announced it had charged Mr White under the Environment Protection Act 1970. The charges alleged that the individual permitted the transport and burial of various types of industrial waste at his rural premises at Lemon Springs. The charges further allege that this unlawful dumping created an environmental hazard and polluted both land and water on the site, amongst other matters.

In 2023, the Director of Public Prosecutions indicted Graham White on a total of 24 charges under the Environment Protection Act 1970. The indictment alleges 13 counts of aggravated pollution by alleging that Mr White intentionally or recklessly caused environmental hazards at each of the Tottenham fire , Epping/Campbellfield Warehouses and the Lemon Springs sites.

As there is an ongoing court process, EPA is not able to provide any further comment on these proceedings. 

Emergency management and site safety

We have been working with the Grampians Regional Emergency Management Team to keep incident response and consequence management plans updated. Regional Emergency Management Teams are a group of local and state government agencies that may have a role during an emergency incident.

Our cost recovery action for the waste dump site

EPA will continue to pursue the occupier to pay for the clean up costs and will use all available powers to hold them to account.

Contractors

We managed all procurement relating to this project. We acknowledge that there was a lot of interest in assisting with the project. We made decisions in line with government procurement practices.

EPA did not employ individuals directly. Contractor companies successful in the tendering process were responsible for employing their own staff.

For further information and feedback

We'll keep you updated through the website, email, and your local newspaper.