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Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump

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6 years 5 months ago #188019 by Roderick Smith
Fyansford cement factory was burning tyres, at such a high temperature that nasty emissions weren't a problem. It was an old plant, and was closed and demolished in favour of the newer one at Waurn Ponds. That one too is slated for closure. The Geelong freeway bypass goes through part of the Fyansford site.

Roderick

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6 years 5 months ago #188023 by Fill
Replied by Fill on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
Hi all
A bit off the subject. Tip fees, I dug eight post holes, which doubled in size when dug out. It cost twice the price to dump the soil than it cost to buy the raw material.
( sand screenings and cement ) No wonder we have a bit of a problem with illegal dumping
Cheers Fill

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5 years 7 months ago #195371 by Roderick Smith
Roderick.

Ex-owner of Stawell's toxic tyre mountain facing $1m in EPA fines 13 August 2018.
The former owner of one of the world's largest tyre dumps that sat dormant in western Victoria for almost a decade is facing fines of more than $1 million for ignoring orders to remove the notorious fire hazard.
The Environment Protection Authority continues to pursue the owners of the Stawell dump after it had to step in last year and remove one million tyres because of the huge risk to the community if the stockpile caught fire.
An aerial shot from 2014 of the Stawell tyre dump. Photo: Boomerang Alliance.
However that could just be the beginning of the financial pain facing the dump's owner, with the environment watchdog still planning to take legal action to recoup the $6 million it spent cleaning it up.
It took 380 truckloads to move 9500 tonnes of tyres over two months, after the toxic stockpile had been the subject of a CFA fire prevention notice and three EPA notices.
In the lead-up to the EPA taking charge, Fairfax Media revealed the ownership of the site had been transferred to a shadowy company based in Panama called "Internet Marketing Solutions Corp".
However the EPA has now taken action against the previous owner, Used Tyre Recycling Corporation Pty Ltd, and its sole director Matthew Starr.
At the time, Dr Starr said he had no connection to the new owner.
"I have never been to Panama and can't speak or understand any Spanish," he said.
Both Dr Starr and Used Tyre Recycling Corporation have been charged with two breaches of an EPA statutory notice.
The maximum court-imposed penalty for each charge is up to $373,104.
At a Supreme Court challenge to have the clean-up stopped, Justice Karin Emerton described the sale of the site as "outrageous".
"It's open to infer that shifting assets between two companies, to a shelf company in Panama, is a device being used to avoid obligations under the fire preventions notice," she said.
Environmental groups had previously described the dump as a "Hazelwood waiting to happen". The CFA assessed the site as a "very high fire" risk, with the potential for catastrophic consequences for the town of Stawell.
video: Clean up overdue for Victoria's tyre dumps
Victoria's largest two tyre dumps of Stawell and Numurkah are set to be cleaned up after a lengthy campaign from residents in both towns.
"The environmental impacts would have included air quality, firewater runoff into local waterways and land contamination. By removing this stockpile, EPA has removed these risks to both the local community and our environment," EPA
chief executive Nial Finegan said.
Dr Starr is listed to appear before the Stawell Magistrates Court on August 28.
Related Articles:
the Stawell tyre yard after the clean-up.
Stawell's tyre mountain has been levelled but the $6m clean-up bill remains.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/ex-o...20180813-p4zx53.html >

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5 years 5 months ago #196354 by Roderick Smith
Out of sequence.
Five photos, from 10 & 17.8.17 Melbourne 'Age'.

Roderick.

Stawell tyre mountain's offshore owners lose court bid to stop clear-up 10 August 2017.
The removal of millions of unused tyres from a huge dumping ground in western Victoria can continue after the Panamanian company that owns the site lost a court challenge to have the clean-up stopped.
The Environmental Protection Authority began removing tyres from the site in Stawell this week amid concerns the dump posed a major health hazard to residents should it catch fire and release toxic chemicals.
The clean-up will continue after a court rejected the property owner's bid to stop the EPA from removing the tyres. Photo: Supplied
But the new owner of the site, the Panama-based Internet Marketing Solutions Corp, tried to halt the EPA's clean-up of the site by seeking an interim injunction in the Supreme Court on Thursday.
A lawyer for the company told the court it only became aware in the past month of fire prevention notices issued on the site by the Country Fire Authority and the EPA, and needed more time to implement measures to reduce the risk of a toxic blaze.
EPA took control of the Stawell site on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Supplied.
But Justice Karin Emerton found there was "overwhelming evidence" in favour of the EPA, and ruled its clean-up should continue. Her decision means truckloads of tyres can continue to be taken from the Stawell site and shredded.
Justice Emerton was told it would take 12 to 18 weeks to remove the tyres, and that work had to be done quickly ahead of the fire season, which could start as early as October given Victoria has had a dry winter.
"In my view, time is of the essence," Justice Emerton said.
EPA chief executive Nial Finegan said it was vital the authority removed the potential for fire at the site.
The clean-up will take up to 18 weeks. Photo: Supplied.
"The consequences of fire at the Stawell tyre dump would be absolutely catastrophic for the community of Stawell," he said outside court.
"We would have huge environmental, economic and more importantly public health impacts on the people of Stawell."
An aerial shot from 2014 of the Stawell tyre dump, which holds around 9 million tyres. Photo: Boomerang Alliance
Estimates of the number of tyres at the dump range from 1 million to 9 million.
Mr Finegan said the EPA's concerns over the site grew when the land was transferred to an overseas company earlier this year. The land was gifted to the Panama-based company, the court heard.
Justice Emerton said it appeared the company that formerly owned the site, Used Tyre Recycling Corporation, had transferred the land to the Panama-based company in order to avoid meeting its obligations to comply with fire prevention notices.
"It's outrageous," she said. "It's open to infer that shifting assets between two companies, to a shelf company in Panama, is a device being used to avoid obligations under the fire preventions notice."
The EPA said last week that it would take charge of the dump unless the fire danger was significantly reduced. If fully ignited, the site could burn for months.
Fairfax Media revealed last Sunday that Internet Marketing Solutions Corp had control of the toxic dump.
The previous owner had promised residents it would rid their town of the dangerous tyres using a controversial recycling process known as pyrolysis, which involves breaking down material at high temperatures.
The plan was never enacted and the site was transferred in recent months to the overseas company.
EPA chief Mr Finegan​ said the exact number of tyres on the site was unknown and it was hard to determine how long it would take to clear.
"EPA has taken this [court] action after repeated failure by the site's owners to comply with EPA notices and a Country Fire Authority fire protection notice issued to reduce the risk of fire at the site to protect the community," he

said.
He said the EPA was using its powers under Section 62 of the Environment Protection Act to conduct the clean-up, which would be a complex and lengthy process involving up to 10 trucks, filled with tyres for shredding in Melbourne,

leaving the site six days a week.
"Although tyres are not easy to ignite, once alight, extinguishing them can be very difficult."
"The risk is compounded by the current size and configuration of the stockpile. The environmental impacts that can occur from a tyre fire are many, including air quality, firewater run-off into local waterways and land contamination."
Mr Finegan said once the tyres were shredded, they could be used to create athletics tracks, brake pads, new tyres and road surfaces.
"A portion of these shredded tyres will also be used as tyre-derived fuel, which is often shipped overseas to destinations that have the technology to use it," he said.
Stawell resident Allan Cooper, 65, told Fairfax Media earlier this month the community had been worried about the tyre stockpile for at least 10 years.
Related Articles:
An aerial shot from 2014 of the Stawell tyre dump, which holds around 9 million tyres.
Internet marketing company in Panama owns a dump of 9 million tyres in Victoria.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/staw...20170809-gxssxi.html >









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5 years 5 months ago #196355 by Roderick Smith
This one also missed at the time.

Roderick.




Inside the EPA's mammoth effort to remove Stawell's toxic tyre mountain 17 August 2017.
Victoria's Environmental Protection Authority is tackling the removal of a toxic mountain of tyres from a site in western Victoria like a military operation.
A week after taking control of the Stawell Tyre Yard, which poses a potentially "catastrophic" fire risk, the agency has described the mammoth clean-up process as a marathon rather than a sprint.
Excavators chip away at the stockpile at Stawell Tyre Yard. Photo: Rex Martinich
The site on the western side of Stawell holds an estimated nine million tyres.
For the first time in its history, the EPA has used specific clauses in legislation to take full control of a site after the deadline for the owners to act on fire hazard notifications expired.
EPA's Danny Childs, who is overseeing the clean-up, says it could take up to 18 weeks. Photo: Rex Martinich
"EPA used the powers under section 55 and 62 of the Environmental Protection Act to access and take control of the site in order to clean up and reduce the very high fire risk that was imposed on the community," Danny Childs, the

agency's project manager at the site, said.
"If the tyres were to go up in flames, it would have huge impacts on society, the economy and the environment," he said.
"It would be catastrophic.
"This has been an unacceptable risk to the Stawell community for far too long now, and that's part of the reason the EPA has taken action."
The tyres will be pressure-cleaned and sorted before they are shredded and recycled. Photo: Rex Martinich
The tyre yard has sat mostly idle for the past decade, with increasing numbers of Stawell residents objecting to the site.
The saga took a bizarre turn this month when Fairfax Media revealed that the site's owner, Used Tyre Recycling Corporation, had 'gifted' the property to a mysterious company registered in Panama, which then tried and failed to get a Supreme Court injunction against the EPA.
Mr Childs estimated that it would take another 12 to 18 weeks to complete the project. "We're currently working Monday to Saturday ... from 6.45am to 6pm," he said.
"It really depends on the weather, what we find in the stockpile itself, and on how quickly we can process them. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon."
The site has two new large polyethylene tanks to hold water for the multiple firefighting trucks that have been placed on standby.
New drainage channels are being built and an erosion management plan will be put in place for the bare ground left behind when the tyres are removed.
Portable pumps are being used continuously at the site to remove water that has built up underneath the tyre piles.
Security guards now patrol temporary fences and the EPA has set up a time-lapse camera to document the process.
One EPA worker described the seized tyre yard as a miniature army base, with temporary offices shipped to the site.
"At this stage the project is progressing well and as planned," Mr Childs said. "We have removed 550 tonnes of tyres as of Tuesday.
"They have been taken to Somerton in Melbourne to be processed by Tyrecycle."
Tyrecycle's plant can process 10.5 million tyres per year. Between 100 to 150 tonnes of tyres from Stawell have been shredded and processed so far.
"The tyres are very dirty," he said. "When the tyres arrive in Somerton, they are having to be manually cleaned using high-pressure water and sorted into passenger tyres versus truck tyres."
Different types of tyres will go through their own recycling processes.
"The truck tyres will be used for road construction, putting them in the asphalting component, for running tracks and playgrounds, and also for tiling adhesive to add flexibility to grout.
"The car tyres are shredded and used as tyre-derived fuel and the fuel is used in things like power plants or kilns."
Related Articles:
An aerial shot from 2014 of the Stawell tyre dump, which holds around 9 million tyres.
Stawell tyre mountain's offshore owners lose court bid to stop clear-up.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/insi...20170817-gxy8cl.html >

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5 years 5 months ago #196356 by Roderick Smith
This one was better organised, with gaps between piles. Would fire in one spread to another? I have seen the same principle in explosives storages (Maribyrnong & Altona), and a whole unit of work was prepared for maths students covering all of the rules for separation and holding pens for storage at Coode Island (Vic.).

Roderick.

Town of Numurkah tires of decade-old tyre dump 26 August 2017.
Numurkah, population 4500, would rather be known for its footy team, bakery or gardens. It most definitely does not want to be known as the home of Victoria's second-largest tyre dump.
About a fortnight ago, the Environment Protection Authority took over the state's largest stockpile – an sea of rubber at Stawell – when the fire risk it posed finally became untenable.
video: Clean up overdue for Victoria's tyre dumps
Victoria's largest two tyre dumps of Stawell and Numurkah are set to be cleaned up after a lengthy campaign from residents in both towns.
But for little Numurkah, its decade-old tyre problem still sits in a heap.
The EPA estimates there's between 400,000 and a million passenger units (how tyres are measured) on a piece of land off the Goulburn Valley Highway.
Numurkah's tyre recycling site owned by the Sidebottoms. Photo: Moira Shire Council.
It pales in comparison to the Stawell site which, at its peak, was home to up to 9 million tyres. But here in the state's north-east, all that separates the pile at Numurkah from the town is a stretch of road. Not only is it ugly, but, if it went up, the town is at risk at being shrouded in toxic smoke.
"It's the biggest bloody eyesore we've had in Numurkah," former councillor Bill Gread said.
Mr Gread – ala "Billy from the bush" – refers to the whole thing as a disgrace. And that "whole thing" is a mess to unpack. There is the Moira Shire Council, which permitted the stockpile in the first place but is now knee-deep in a legal fight to get it removed; the EPA who reckon it was never their job to monitor the pile, and the owners of the tyres, the Sidebottoms.
The Sidebottoms are well-known in the district because there are lots of them. The Sidebottoms in question here are Raymond and his son Shanan.
Kelvin Sidebottom with his self-published biography. Photo: Ray Sizer / Shepparton News.
Raymond's father Kelvin is also well known. He wrote a self-published biography, One Man's Dream to Make a Difference, and was seen as a successful businessman before he headed a property development more than 30 years ago that ended in the liquidation of a company, him bankrupt and more than 50 locals losing money.
One local, who asked not want to be named, remembers it well.
Kelvin's son, Raymond Sidebottom. Photo: Shepparton News.
"Everyone jumped on it – Rotarians, Apex members – the who's who of the town. They went like lambs to the slaughter," he said
He said locals paid for blocks of land they never got titles for and, when the company went bottom up, so did the promised land.
Shanan Sidebottom says he's committed to clearing the tyre site. Photo: Shepparton News.
"All these people in Numurkah reckon I sold them out," Kelvin, now in his 80s, said.
But, he said, a developer he agreed to sell the land to pulled out of the deal, and the bank foreclosed on him.
"I'm an arsehole in their eyes ... but they don't know the facts," he said.
He lives in nearby Wunghnu (pronounced "one-you") and doesn't have much to do with his son and grandson any more.
Raymond was the subject of a police investigation – in which the charges were later dropped – in 2014 when he was accused of importing drugs from Spain.
But before that, in 2003, Raymond and Kelvin got caught up in a mammoth tax scam that ended in the two companies they owned being fined a record $52 million.
"That was only put on us so the oil companies could get us out of the business," Kelvin said. "We never ever had to pay anything."
The Supreme Court found Raymond and Kelvin had evaded excise duty by blending diesel fuel with cheaper petroleum products such as kerosene, heating oil, waste oil and solvents.
"They were flashy and they had some good ideas," one local claimed of the Sidebottoms. "But someone always got burnt."
In 2007, there was another idea and, despite the history, the council gave them another chance.
A permit was granted to develop the piece of land on the corner of the highway and Saxton Street West into a tyre recycling facility.
Perhaps it was the promise of new jobs and industry for the town, but the application was passed under delegation with barely a whimper.
Except from Dianne Hill, that is. She used to own and operate Peter Hill Honda, which sits opposite the proposed recycling facility, and started kicking up a stink.
"I warned the shire. I spoke to a lot of tyre recyclers. I said 'Look at Stawell'. They would not listen to me," she said.
"It's common practice that they (recyclers) get paid for tyres, and then they don't recycle them. It's a money-making venture."
The Sidebottom Group, which changed hands from Raymond to his son, Shanan, and the now deregistered Australian Rubber Manufacturers (also last headed by Shanan) started bringing in tyres.
By 2013 – and several extensions of the permit later – the land still hadn't been developed, the tyres had piled up and the Country Fire Authority started to get worried.
Less than a month after the CFA told the council about their concerns, fire broke out. The fire, which was deemed suspicious, sent toxic, black smoke directly up in the air. It was sheer luck it wasn't windy, firefighters said at the time, as it would have created a serious health hazard and potentially the evacuation of the town.
It was, as Moira Shire chief executive Mark Henderson puts it, the catalyst for action.
Mark Henderson is at pains to say he's been in the job for only three years. In other words, the mess the council is in was not his fault.
"People were hopeful the Sidebottoms would establish a recycling facility and at some point, reality kicked in," he said.
He said the shire should have stepped earlier.
"I think when there was clear evidence of a stockpile of tyres and no evidence of a recycling facility, that's when action should have been taken," he said.
"The trouble with planning is when someone does do the wrong thing, we don't have easy mechanisms to correct it."
Especially when it's a whole lot of tyres. If the council took over the land (the permit has lapsed and there's a caveat on it for unpaid land tax), it would cost upwards of $2 million to clean it up.
"The council does not want the ratepayers to bear the cost of cleaning up the Sidebottom site ... we think the Sidebottoms should have to clean up their own mess," Mr Henderson said.
The council took the Sidebottom Group and ARM to VCAT in 2013. Two years later, the stockpile still hadn't been reduced. So they went to the Supreme Court. That didn't work so the council went back to court again to ask the court to find the companies – Sidebottom Group and ARM – in contempt. The application failed, but Justice Rita Zammit noted the stockpile posed a serious threat to the community.
"Sidebottom Group's conduct is clearly unsatisfactory," she said.
So far, it has cost the council $250,000.
A phone call to the Sidebottom Group was met with a cheery voice of a woman on the other end. Neither Shanan or Raymond wanted to talk over the phone so, instead, we sent a series of questions hoping to get their side of the story.
In a statement from 33-year-old Shanan – who has headed 13 companies since he was 18 – he said that since he took control for the waste tyre stockpile in May 2015, he has been able to remove 732 tonnes of the 5650 tonnes on the property. That's about 79,000 truck tyres and 170,000 car tyres, he said.
The fire management plan was approved by the CFA and had passed inspection.
"We are working closely with the current Moira Shire councillors and staff, EPA and CFA to monitor the removal progress and explore all avenues for legitimate recycling and repurposing for the tyres," he wrote.
He wrote they were unable to develop the plan before the permit was revoked, but still believed there was a need for growth and expansion in this industry in Australia.
"Australia has a large waste tyre environmental issue as the state government has recently shone a light on and very limited certified companies are able to accept and recycle them," he said.
"Going forward we will continue to remove as many waste tyres as we are both financially and logistically able to."
Shanan also gave a personal undertaking to the Supreme Court in December to clean up the site.
An audit by the EPA and council last week found the fire risk had been reduced because the tyres had been separated, but little of what was required had been cleared, Mr Henderson said.
"I suspect we'll be back in the Supreme Court," he said.
He called on the EPA to "come in harder" and use its resources and penalties to get a result.
EPA chief executive Nial Finegan said it was not that simple.
In 2015, a new regulatory framework was introduced that required recyclers to obtain a licence.
The regulations meant stockpiles the size and nature of Stawell and Numurkah would not be created again, Mr Fingegan said.
He said the Numurkah stockpile pre-dated the overhaul and remains council's responsibility.
Stawell, he said, was totally different to Numurkah because the tyres had been separated, creating clearways for fire trucks to get through, so it was less likely to cause an environmental hazard.
"That's what we're trying to achieve at Stawell. From a big lob of tyres to something that's a bit more manageable," he said.
"It's very, very unlikely that all those tyres will go up."
And Supreme Court proceedings, he said, took precedence.
"The best way forward is to work through the court order," he said.
Mr Gread said the town's patience was wearing thin.
Numurkah would prefer to be known for the roses and lawns the townsfolk take so much pride in, he said.
"But it won't be long until we're better known for our tyre dump."
Related Articles:
Excavators chip away at the stockpile at Stawell Tyre Yard.
Inside the EPA's mammoth effort to remove Stawell's toxic tyre mountain.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/town...20170826-gy4rnq.html >

Man behind tyre dump put behind bars 2 October 2018.
The director of a company behind Victoria's second-largest tyre dump has been convicted of contempt and sentenced to four months' behind bars.
Shanan James Sidebottom and his company Sidebottom Group were each convicted of criminal contempt by Victorian Supreme Court judge Rita Zammit on Monday. The company was fined $50,000.
It follows a long history of legal disputes between Sidebottom and Moira Shire Council about the mountain of tyres gathered on two parcels of land in Numurkah, a small town in Victoria's far-north.
Numurkah's tyre site owned by the Sidebottoms. Photo: Moira Shire Council.
The land was initially used as a storage facility for used tyres. The idea was to develop it into a tyre recycling plant, but this never eventuated.
Several planning permits were issued by the council, which were extended and then expired.
By 2013, some of the tyres caught fire, putting locals at risk.
Since that year, Sidebottom and the council have been in and out of court - first at VCAT and then at the Supreme Court - where Justice Zammit presided over the case in 2015, 2016 and again this year.
In the 2016 case, Sidebottom was ordered by Justice Zammit to dispose of the tyres over a 12-month period.
But only about 345 of the approximately 5000 tonnes of tyres on the land were removed between the time the order was made in late 2016 and February this year, the council told the court.
Since 2014, a mere seven per cent of the tyres have been removed.
The council brought the case back to the Supreme Court in January this year in a bid to examine whether Sidebottom was in contempt of court by breaching the court's order.
Justice Zammit found that Sidebottom could not have "honestly" believed he could carry out the court's ruling when he agreed to comply with the order in 2016.
Sidebottom pointed to various reasons for the delay - an increase in tyre processing fees and a lack of available trucks needed for the transfer. He also cited financial problems and an expensive loan he had to pay.
But Justice Zammit found Sidebottom should have known about these issues, or could have found them out, describing his actions as a "perverse refusal to accept the jurisdiction of the court".
"Mr Sidebottom was therefore prepared to say and do whatever was necessary to gain more time. He knowingly gave the undertaking when there was no real prospect of compliance," Justice Zammit wrote in her ruling.
"Mr Sidebottom to now say that he honestly believed he could comply with the undertaking, that he was naive and that he was ‘100 per cent sure’ of compliance, must be met with scepticism if not disbelief."
Sidebottom apologised for his actions, and said he inherited the tyres on the land, but "made efforts" to have them removed.
"I was not responsible for the tyres coming onto the property but I became director of the [company] in May 2015 to clean up the mess the company found itself in because of earlier mismanagement and because of that I am responsible for removal of the tyres," he told the court.
"I am extremely sorry to be back in court and I have never wanted to be in this position, but I have honestly done everything that I believe possible and to the best of my ability to comply with the orders."
Moira Shire Council chief executive Mark Henderson said the case would send a "very clear message to polluters that if you are going to create an environmental and fire risk you will be penalised."
"We welcome the news the Supreme Court has found in our favour and imposed a suitable penalty given that the most recent CFA risk assessment of the site is extreme with potentially catastrophic impacts on the Numurkah community were a large fire to take hold of the site," Mr Henderson said.
Related Article:
Numurkah's tyre recycling site owned by the Sidebottoms.
Town of Numurkah tires of decade-old tyre dump.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/man-...20181002-p507a8.html >

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