A Brooklyn meat processing company has had its fines doubled after it again allowed manure and urine smells to emit from its cattle yards.
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The Environment Protection Authority Victoria fined JBS Australia $7773 on Tuesday for allowing offensive odours to seep into the local community in August last year.
It was the company's second fine in four months after it copped a $7000 fine in April.
Yarraville residents complained to the EPA about the smells on both occasions.
The company is unlikely to feel the pain of the fine. JBS Australia describes itself as the largest meat processing company in Australia. It is a division of JBS, the largest animal protein processing company in the world, working in the areas of food, leather, pet products, bio diesel, collagen, cans and cleaning products.
The EPA has also issued the company with two remedial notices demanding it improve facilities in the stockyard and in its rendering plant.
An EPA officer visited the Yarraville site and confirmed there was a smell of livestock, urine and manure in the air. The smell could be detected in and around Ballard Street, Kidman Street, Somerville Road and Stooke Street, Yarraville, an EPA statement said.
Odour testing traced the offensive smells to JBS Australia's cattle yards in Industry Park Drive, Brooklyn.
EPA metro manager Dan Hunt said in the statement the officer then inspected JBS Australia and found the same offensive odours as those detected in Yarraville.
"This same company received a fine for odour offences only a few months before so it's disappointing that EPA continued to receive reports from community about how they were being impacted," Mr Hunt said.
He said allowing odour to discharge from a company's site is a breach of the company's EPA licence.
"Licence holders need to have processes to prevent environmental impacts and be able to demonstrate they are complying with their licence," Mr Hunt said.
"The company has allowed odours to leave its site and impact on local communities, a clear breach of its EPA licence, which is why this fine has been handed down."
EPA urges members of the public to report suspected pollution to EPA on 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC) or at www.epa.vic.gov.au
