Elf Farm Supplies continues to stink out Windsor
For more than 20 years residents of Windsor and surrounds have been fighting to stop the stink of rotting food matter and other stench coming from mushroom compost manufacturer, Elf Farm Supplies. The impact on the local high school, businesses and residents has been severe but, despite assurances by Hawkesbury Council and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) that action was being taken, the smell goes on.
Residents have had enough. Local resident Kim Smith told The Daily Mail newspaper she did not have any faith in processes set up to reduce the smell.[1] This includes a Community Liaison Committee that was set up in 2015 in collaboration with ELF as well as local businesses, residents, schools and industry experts to help combat the odour problem. Ms Smith was a member of the committee but has recently resigned because she believed it was not effective and that resolution of the problem is being strung out by Elf.
“Nothing is happening to stop the stink,' she said.'ELF have put in plans to council to improve the problem, but those strategies won't be put in place for another 18 months or two years. We’ve already been fighting for too long.”
Another resident told the newspaper she was sceptical about the company's new odour management plan:
“They have always said that they are importing this and importing that, using the world's best practices.
“In 2003 the council attempted to take them to the Land and Environment Court, but the case was adjourned because they (ELF) said they were importing some state of the art technology to fix the smell. It is all part of their delaying tactics. If they were really genuine in their effort to stop the stink they would have.”
Falling student numbers at Windsor High School have also been blamed on the odour that students have to deal with year-round.
Background
Elf Farm Supplies has operated under various Hawkesbury City Council consents from approximately 1978, prior to the existence of the NSW Environmental Protection Assessment Act 1979 and the requirement to have an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The business was originally manufacturing mushroom compost at a site on Wallace Road Vineyard and moved to its current site at Mulgrave after numerous complaints.
As at 2008 there were over 1200 complaints to the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) pollution complaint line about Elf Farms and a copy of these was provided to local resident and activist Neville Diamond by then EPA officer Jo Zurrer with undertakings that action would be taken.
According to Mr Diamond no action was taken by the EPA at the time.
“Elf Farm Supplies was polluting with impunity contrary to requirements under Hawkesbury Council consents and environmental legislation from 1979 to 2008,” Mr Diamond told The Hawkesbury Council Integrity Watch.
“Despite the number of complaints about pollution, in 2008 the facility was granted an extension to its consent by the EPA and the Department of Planning (DOP). This happened again in 2013 and again in 2016.”
Elf Farm holds an environment protection licence issued by the EPA, which sets out requirements for environmental management and performance at the premises.
In 2013, The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) placed a pollution reduction program (PRP) on Elf Farm to address community concerns about offensive offsite odours after they were identified as the key source in an independent odour assessment.
After numerous complaints, the EPA engaged independent odour expert, The Odour Unit Pty Ltd (TOU), to conduct odour surveys in the area. According to the EPA, the descriptions of the odours varied from compost, organic, rotten egg, chemical, manure and sewage, indicating a wide range of potential odour sources.
The consultants found that the Elf Farm facility was the most likely source of the odour and emits a range of odours. Odour from the facility was detected at various levels in all seven field odour surveys.
Elf Farm said it would carry out process changes to mitigate the risk of odour emissions from its activities. The EPA said in a media release the changes to the licence were “legally binding and any breaches could result in regulatory action.”
In a NSW parliamentary inquiry into mushroom composting in 2014, the EPA revealed it had 1140 complaints about Elf on record prior to 2013. In the year following the order by the EPA to introduce a pollution reduction program there were 161 complaints. Between January and November 2015 there were a further 73 complaints.
Despite Elf Farm’s undertakings to address the odour problem, the facility was issued with a clean-up notice for pumping "dark, turbid and odorous" waste water into the South Wianamatta Creek in May 2015 and on October 8 2015
was fined $8,000 by the EPA for an offensive odour incident.
Chris McElwain, EPA Senior Manager of Waste Compliance Sydney said the Penalty Notice and fine was issued for breaching section 129 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.
“Throughout July and August 2015, following numerous complaints regarding alleged odour impacts caused by Elf Farm Supplies, EPA authorised officers conducted several odour survey programs that identified unmitigated and repeated odour emissions from the Elf Farm Supplies premises.” Mr McElwain said.
“On 25 August 2015 offensive odours were identified as emanating from the external bale wetting pond used for storing process leachate and leachate within the pre-wet shed.
“Odour emissions were observed from Elf Farm Supplies that were in breach of s129 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 due to the odours’ intensity, character, duration and area of impact.
Mr McElwain said that the EPA has required Elf Farm Supplies to undertake works to contain and treat all odour emissions from its operations. Elf Farm Supplies’ proposed works to achieve these requirements is currently under assessment by the Department of Planning and Environment.
"The EPA is committed to ensuring that Elf Farm Supplies undertakes process changes to mitigate the risk of odour emissions from its activities and meets the requirements for environmental management and performance at the Mulgrave Road premises,” Mr McElwain said.
In July 2016 the EPA again issued an $8000 fine to Elf Farm Supplies for emitting offensive odours. EPA and DPE compliance officers conducted three odour surveys and a follow-up site inspection on 18 and 19 July. During the third survey the officers identified an offensive odour similar to a mixture of rotting straw, ammonia and manure. Offensive odours were detected up to 1km away from the Elf Farm Supplies composting facility.
Expansion of Elf against the public interest
In spite of numerous breaches of its consent and ongoing complaints from members of the public about the smell, in March 2016 approval was granted to Elf Farm Supplies for expansion of its facilities by the Department of Planning and Environment.
Residents opposed to the expansion believe this was in breach of the department’s Code of Conduct, Complaint Handling and Prosecution Guidelines as the development application was not properly advertised in the local newspaper, The Hawkesbury Gazette, but instead in The Rouse Hill Times, which is not a local publication.
In addition, they say it is against the public interest to give approval to a DA application and consent to expansion of Elf Farm Supplies given its record of breaching the conditions of its consent.
Elf Farm Supplies says it is installing “state of the art” technology modelled on Western European mushroom composting technology and will eventually have a “fully enclosed odour management plant at its Mulgrave mushroom composting site”.
According to the company’s website, construction of its upgraded facilities began in August 2016. The new technology includes a biofilter and ammonia scrubbers to treat odorous air and building new tunnels to all operations to occur indoors.
The company said it will “also undertake other minor works and continue to carry out landscaping to soften our visual impact.”
As part of the EPA’s conditions a Consumer Liaison Committee was set up to address public concerns about the facility. ELF says that odour complaints have also been logged by an independent complaints line since February 2015.
Residents are not convinced. Several who are on the Consumer Liaison Committee have expressed frustration that it is not effective and is part of a PR campaign to keep residents at bay.
Meeting notes from a CLC meeting on August 31 2016 state that committee members expressed “frustration with the CLC process and its inability to influence EFS [Elf Farm Supplies] operations, creating a sense that EFS did not appreciate the concerns CLC members raised during meetings.”
The meeting notes also show that “when questioned an EPA representative advised that EFS had been fined four times.”
Former CLC member and ‘Stop the Stink’ Facebook Group founder, Kim Smith, said:
“The EPA have allowed the breaching of the consent conditions for years.
“The Community Liaison Committee set up by EPA is a farce and is not working. The massive amount of housing coming to the area through Vineyard is not compatible with this stinking factory
“STOP THE STINK will continue to lobby for the factory to move on like the other two composters in the area had to do” she concluded.
The EPA encourages members of the community impacted by an odour to report it to the EPA’s Environment Line on 131 555; including reporting the time and duration of the odour event, the wind direction, the type and intensity of the odour and where the odour was detected.
Resident, Neville Diamond, is not confident in this process. He believes that complaints about Elf to the EPA are sent as “requests” to Elf and as such are not logged as complaints on Elf’s Complaint Log, which he says “makes a joke of the requirement to report complaints.”
Residents are also concerned that it will be at least another two years before the new technology is installed at the composting facility. Even then they do not have any faith that the odour will be gone.
Local business owner, Trever Crunkhorn, told the Sydney Morning Herald the smell was affecting his workplace productivity.[2]
“People work best when they are happy,' Mr Crunkhorn said.“The first thing you want to do when you smell it is gag, and find somewhere to hide.”
In 2015 he sent his staff home because the smell was making conditions in his warehouse impossible to work in, and he says that sick-days increase when the smell intensifies.
“When a south-westerly breeze comes in we tend to cop it,”he said.
Greens slam the lack of action against Elf
Greens NSW MP and Environment Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC visited Mulgrave in late 2015 with locals, including then Greens Hawkesbury Councillor, Leigh Williams.
Dr Faruqi said she would write to the Minister for the Environment, calling on him to intervene to bring an end to the stink.
Dr Faruqi, a civil and environmental engineer said in a media statement:
“This issue really stinks. For decades, the community has been dealing with the putrid smells coming off this mushroom farm invading their living rooms.
“The Environmental Protection Authority has issued fines in the past but it is very clear that these have not had much effect.
“Members of the community are sceptical of the independence of the data being collected so we need to see the Environmental Protection Authority step up to ensure a solution is enacted in the short term, not in another twenty
years.
“I recently had the opportunity to sit on an inquiry into the Environmental Protection Authority and I saw many cases where the EPA was perceived to be too close to industry and not looking out for the best interests of the community.
“I will be writing to the Environment Minister to say enough is enough. We need a permanent solution to this issue and we need it now” she concluded.
So far there has been no action from the NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage, Mark Speakman.
At the time of writing, in late in 2016, there have been some new developments regarding action against Elf Farm Supplies. HCIW will update readers once the details are at hand.
Elf Farm Supplies 24 hour complaints line 1800 155 079
[1] Welcome to Stinkville, Belinda Cleary, Daily Mail Australia online November 30 2016
[2] Why Windsor High is nicknamed the stinky school, Natalie O’Brien, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 29 2015