An Invermay man has been handed a $10,000 fine for dumping industrial waste in the Nerrina Historic Area, north-east of Ballarat.
The state Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Crime Branch began investigating the dumping, allowed by accused hobby farmer Stephen Martin, Invermay, in April 2019 after being alerted to the waste by reports from the public.
The Ballarat Magistrate's Court heard Martin had 2,400 cubic metres of soil mixed with construction and demolition waste dumped on farmland leased from Ballarat City Council in Glen Park.
The EPA investigation included covert surveillance in February 2020 by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) - formerly known as the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, or DELWP - and concluded in November that year.
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In January 2021, the environmental authority served Martin a Clean-Up Notice, requiring the removal of all the industrial waste to a properly licensed facility by May 31.
He failed to comply.
Martin pleaded guilty to 11 charges of permitting industrial waste to be dumped at a premises that was not licensed to accept it, and one charge of contravening a clean-up notice from EPA.
The accused was ordered to pay EPA legal costs of $3,408, however the court declined an application ordering Martin to remove the industrial waste from the farmland.
Instead, according to a statement by the EPA, "he is to continue engagement with Parks Victoria and EPA to fund and achieve sensible remediation of the land".
