Miners Rest residents are incredibly disgruntled about the “bloody terrible” smell coming from the new CVLX Miners Rest saleyards.
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Ralph Bleicher lives about one kilometre from the saleyards and has said the smell is near unbearable when his home is hit by wind coming from the site.
“It is absolutely disgusting,” he said.
Mr Bleicher used to work across the road from the old saleyards in Delacombe and says the smell coming from there was never this bad.
Mr Bleicher has been in support of the saleyards through the entire consultation and implementation process, but now says the smell is just too much.
“I’ve got no issues with (the saleyards) being there but what do I do come Christmas when I have 50 people over and my property smells like s**t.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with CVLX to uncover the cause of the odour.
“EPA requires the saleyards to undertake odour monitoring to verify that they’re complying with the approved design plans,” EPA South West manager Carolyn Francis said in a statement to The Courier.
“EPA will be conducting further odour surveillance and site inspections, though direct and detailed information from the community is vital to this ongoing investigation.
“We encourage reporters to note when the odour occurred, the duration, the strength, the weather conditions and any other useful information and report this directly to EPA to the 24-hour pollution hotline 1300 372 842 or email contact@epa.vic.gov.au.”
CVLX says they will continue to investigate the issue but believe that some complaints may be caused by a smell originating elsewhere.
“Investigations to date have highlighted...that the wind direction at the date and time of the complaints have shown to be in the opposite direction away from the identified receptor and therefore any odour concerns at that time could not have originated from the CVLX facility,” managing director AAM Investment Group Gary Edwards said in a statement.
The EPA has encouraged CVLX to hold a community forum on Monday to allow people to voice their concerns about the facility. CVLX is yet to respond to the request.
Mr Bleicher worries if nothing is done the smell could potentially drop the value of properties in the area.
“There’s a house on my street on the market for $1.2 million. No one is going to pay even half of that to live on a property that stinks whenever the wind blows. Regional Livestock Exchange runs saleyards all over the state – they had to have known this would happen.”
