Residents in a small town on the foothills of the Snowy Mountains are worried a “rotten-egg” smell from a nearby landfill could harm the area’s growing tourism industry.
Key points:
- Tumut in southern NSW has been plagued by an “overwhelming” smell for two months
- Residents and businesses are worried it could hurt the town’s growing tourism industry
- The Environment Protection Authority is imposing restrictions on a nearby landfill
For the past two months, Tumut has been regularly engulfed in a stench which residents have described as overwhelming, nauseating and inescapable.
The NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has identified the nearby Bellette landfill as the source of the odour and launched efforts to eliminate the smell.
But some fear its impact could linger.
Tumut Community Association president Christine Webb said the unpleasant smell was a stark contrast with the area’s reputation as a picturesque destination with crisp mountain air.
“People expect they’re coming to a nice, fresh, mountainous area … and that’s been the worry with this odour — how it will affect tourism,” she said.
“They’ve thought they’d come somewhere away from that city pollution and now they have … that very bad odour which is perhaps making them feel very unwell.”
Tourism in the area has grown significantly in the past decade, but there are concerns the odour issue could cause a backwards step.
Tim Martin, who runs the town’s brewery, said it relied relied on visitors for nearly 90 per cent of its day-to-day business.
“Hopefully [tourists] have asked the question and found out it isn’t a common thing here,” he said.
“But if they haven’t, it could very much taint the way they promote our region to their friends.”
Authority imposes restrictions
The EPA tracked the odour to Bellettes Landfill on the town’s edge in mid-July, after receiving more than 80 complaints of a hydrogen-sulphide and rotten-egg smell.
Scott Kidd, the authority’s director of regulatory operations, said gas monitors were installed across the area and the licensee was immediately ordered to cover the landfill.
Further restrictions were imposed in early August, including limits on the type and volume of waste the facility was allowed to accept.
Mr Kidd said liquid that flowed through the waste, also known as leachate, was being pumped out and treated, which had caused a “significant reduction in the odours”.
He said the cause was being investigated, but similar situations elsewhere in NSW had been the result of rainwater interacting with materials in landfill such as plasterboard.
“You then get organisms which break down some of the materials in the landfill and in doing so excrete gases,” he said.
Owner apologises
Bellettes Landfill owner Martin Hay said the odour issue was a “total accident” and apologised to the Tumut community.
He said the equivalent of 12,000 tonnes of clay had been dumped over the waste which had suppressed “about 95 per cent” of the smell.
Gas management crews are expected to attend the site in the next week to investigate the installation of a gas-burning system.
“It will take a month or six weeks to implement, but moving forward there will be no more trouble,” Mr Hay said.
“There’s nothing we could have done to prevent it.”
Tumut’s mayor, Ian Chaffey, urged that Bellettes and the EPA worked to prevent future odours.
“It can have a serious impact, not only on the tourism industry but also on the people who have to put up with the situation 24 hours a day,” he said.
“We need to make sure it never happens again.”