What is the EPA hiding behind its wall of silence?

Published on 09 September 2025

Agencies which manage public land should be aware Moorabool Shire Council's repeated requests for transparency about toxic waste illegally dumped on public land have fallen on deaf ears at the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), which maintains a code of silence around the contamination crisis. 

Council now plans to appeal to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) as Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the EPA have been denied not once but three times. 

Last month Council was forced to pay at least $500,000 to clean up trailers of dissolved acetylene cylinders, which are highly flammable and filled with asbestos, illegally dumped on Council-managed land near Bacchus Marsh while under the EPA’s watch. 

The EPA had the property the trailers originated from under surveillance for at least a year and had failed to act until the trailers turned up on Council-managed land.  

“Our ratepayers have been slugged half a million bucks to do this work, and the EPA won’t even be transparent with us about how the situation got to this point,” Mayor, Cr Paul Tatchell said. 

“We’ve stepped up to protect our community and clean up a mess we didn’t make, and they don’t even have the decency to share all the information relevant to this situation with us. 

“What have they got to hide?” 

Council is aware there are at least a thousand more similar cylinders on the property near Bacchus Marsh, outside of which the trailers were dumped.  

Meanwhile, Moorabool Shire is currently running a campaign targeting illegal dumping in the shire, particularly by builders and contractors coming into the area for work. More details: moorabool.vic.gov.au/illegal-dumping