Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs “They can also cause short and long-term environmental harm, such as through generation of significant quantities of contaminated fire water runoff.”Asked in January 2023 why his company had an empty water truck that could not be used in the event of fire, Limbourne told investigators the truck was being used for dust suppression.“And as you know it’s a f—ing dusty windy sh– hole f—ing c— of a joint … so we’ve been sort of forced to use that truck to eliminate dust on site,” he said, according to documents tendered to the court.By 2021, Limbourne had begun illegally stockpiling more than 400 tonnes of industrial waste in western Victoria.In 2021, Limbourne set up a company called Tombell Linsed, of which he is sole director, and used this company to take ownership of a 20-hectare block of native bushland on Sandy Creek Road, Great Western, between Stawell and Ararat. In December of that year, Country Fire Authority and Victoria Police officers responded to reports of a fire at the Sandy Creek Road property.After CFA officers extinguished the fire – which Limbourne had lit two months earlier – they discovered a series of stockpiles containing an estimated 927 cubic metres of building and construction waste littered around the bush.The stockpiles, weighing an estimated 463 tonnes, contained a mess of mixed materials including timber, particleboard, plywood, fabric, plastic, cement sheet and steel.An EPA investigator examines a pile of mulched building waste on Limbourne’s bush property.Credit: Environmental Protection AuthorityOne of the stockpiles was shredded, with building and construction material mixed through it.The risks posed by improperly handled construction and building waste have been thrown into stark relief by the discovery of asbestos and other construction waste in mulch at a raft of Melbourne parks over the past fortnight.Environment Protection Authority director of regulatory services, Duncan Pendrigh, said the asbestos could have wound up in the mulch at several points in the supply chain, including during transportation of the mulch.One live possibility was the processing of recycled timbers from demolition sites.“The demolition companies must assess any demolition for asbestos,” Pendrigh told ABC radio on Thursday.“Thirty per cent of houses have asbestos material in them, so 30 per cent that get demolished will have asbestos material in them. So demolishers must make sure they remove all asbestos through a licensed contractor … and that any site materials that are recycled from those sites should be free of asbestos.“Timbers coming to mulch producers should be free of asbestos and if they’re not, and there’s a small level of contamination, the mulch producer is then required to visibly inspect all loads and remove any contaminants with that material.”There is no suggestion Limbourne mulched building and construction waste for commercial purposes.Limbourne, who has pleaded guilty to a raft of offences including illegally dumping and burning waste, failing to comply with EPA orders, failing to store waste safely, and failing to have safety and fire plans in place, told investigators he planned to use the shredded material as a low-rent mulch.“With the CND [construction and demolition] waste, I’m going to line the property with trees and the driveways,” he said. “That will be mulched up with a horizontal grinder. And that mulch, it’s basically to create a low-budget mulch to line the base of trees, just to keep moisture in.”Limbourne’s defence barrister Diana Price told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court her client’s bush block now looked very different from when EPA officers last conducted full inspections of the block“He removed the construction and demolition piles but did not provide proof that [he took them] to a place that was authorised to receive [them],” she said. “Those piles are no longer there.”Inspectors discovered waste buried beneath orange-coloured gravel.Credit: Environmental Protection AgencyLimbourne provided the EPA with receipts from Stawell Landfill, showing building waste totalling 66.4 tonnes was legally deposited at the tip on May 10 and 11, 2022, and October 10 and 11, 2022.This accounts for about 14 per cent of the 463.5 tonnes of building and other waste investigators believe was dumped on the bush block.Court documents show EPA inspections on February 4, 2022, and July 15, 2022, confirmed the vast piles of waste were no longer visible. But the authority suspects the waste is still hidden in the bush.“A significant quantity of C&D [construction and demolition] waste remained on the premises spread on the onsite roadways and clearings to a depth of 30 cm,” a court summary states.“Some of this waste was underneath a layer of what appeared to be recently laid orange coloured gravel.”The case points to the nightmare regulators face in trying to contain risks within the rubbish and waste industry.LoadingOn April 5, Ali Mournir Barakat, from Image Demolition, was fined $25,000 for leaving 150 kilograms of industrial waste containing asbestos exposed on a Spotswood demolition site.Barakat, who is listed by WorkSafe as a licensed Class B Asbestos Removalist, was filmed spilling litres of chemicals as he crushed plastic drums on a demolition site in Watt Street, Spotswood, and leaving asbestos open on the ground, in 2021.The EPA served Barakat with a formal notice requiring him to develop a clean-up plan. Instead, Barakat produced an Asbestos Clearance Certificate to show the ground was now clear of any visible asbestos. He was unable to prove that the asbestos had been removed and, if so, where it had been taken.An EPA spokeswoman said the agency had received 842 reports of the illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste in the past 12 months.EPA chief investigator Greg Elms acknowledged Melburnians were in a state of high alert over asbestos.“At a time when Melbourne is very sensitive to the subject of asbestos, those who do not dispose of it properly should see this as a warning that EPA will prosecute and it will cost you,” he said.Limbourne has pleaded guilty to all charges laid against him and his companies, for the Brooklyn breaches and the dumping and burning of material in the bush block.
