FRUSTRATION continues to grow for Port Campbell residents tired of nearby gas plants self-policing their noise levels.
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Since hearing residents’ concerns on March 28 with the Otway Community Reference Group, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria is yet to conduct any noise monitoring of its own.
Dairy farmer Kevin Tesselar said the opportune time had now passed to measure noise from the Origin and TRU Energy gas plants, which often spooked his cattle in nearby paddocks.
“We had a meeting with council and with the regional director at EPA, Eve Graham, who gave us a commitment it would be a top priority,” Mr Tesselar said.
“Having had that commitment we expected some action or follow up, but we’ve heard nothing.
“We’ve had no feedback from the EPA.
“With changing weather conditions they might’ve missed the best opportunity to do noise monitoring in the stillest conditions.”
Port Campbell resident Greg Clarke said flares from one of the gas plants on Tuesday morning had woken his family at 4.15am, with flames lighting up their rooms.
“We are sick of being woken by these explosions as much as the constant drones,” he said.
“When does the EPA plan to let us know of their plans to properly police the south-west coast?
“My family and I, and other affected residents, have put enormous faith in the EPA to table a plan to treat residents’ complaints seriously, with action not words.
“Yet we have heard almost nothing from the EPA.”
While the EPA has not conducted noise monitoring since meeting with residents, an EPA spokeswoman said the authority had reviewed a noise monitoring report submitted by Origin.
“The monitoring was undertaken to assess noise improvement works recently conducted by the company,” she said.
“EPA is requiring further monitoring works to be done and is assessing the best time to begin this.
“We have also asked Origin to provide us with data on flares and will review this against ‘best practice’.”