There is fresh hope for Miners Rest residents who have struggled adjusting to the odour from the Central Victorian Livestock Exchange (CVLX).
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A pair of Pollution Abatement Notices (PANs) were issued last week to the saleyards by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), outlining a number of changes necessary to help reduce the 'offensive odour' emitted from the premises.
The orders included the plating of extensive planting of vegetation buffers throughout the site and modifications of the sheep selling facility that will enable quicker and more efficient cleaning to be carried out.
Tim Gallagher, CEO of AAM Investment Group (AAMIG), the organisation that runs CVLX, said he is confident the planting will assist in masking the odour.
"Planting extra vegetation provides a range of additional environmental and screening benefits for the site and is expected to reduce potential future risk of odour being emitted from the site," he said in a statement.
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The 'buffer vegetation' would include the planting of 4400 native shrub seedlings as well as 50 mature trees, to be completed in increments by May 2021.
Another person hopeful this will be the case is Ballarat Councillor Grant Tillett, who said he will wait and see if the new measures make a significant difference.
"The two PAN notices that were issued recently should resolve (the odour), but I'll wait until I can see the results," he said.
He added while not all people in Miners Rest have called for action, those with houses downwind of the facility are in serious need of assistance.
"It's been a tragedy because it's done a lot of damage to the people of Miners Rest," he continued.
"Not all people, but those who are over in the general vicinity of the school have been affected seriously because they're right where the wind goes... It takes the odour straight through those houses."
The EPA has said almost 80 residents had reported odour with 390 pollution reports in the nine months up to late November last year.
The Central Victorian Livestock Exchange is the biggest sale yard in Victoria.
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