Elsie Lange
A document tabled in Victorian parliament last month raised concerns about who will be responsible for issues arising from the Hi-Quality spoil disposal site in Bulla.
The site is currently accepting spoil from the West Gate Tunnel Project (WGTP) despite an adjourned Supreme Court case between Hume council and Planning Minister Richard Wynne.
The tabled paper, titled the West Gate Tunnel Project Third Amending Deed, was the focus of questions raised in parliament by Western Metropolitan MP and Bulla resident Bernie Finn on March 24.
“Today we find out when reading the West Gate Tunnel Project agreement third amending deed that the government has completely taken responsibility for any potential disaster away from itself and given it to a company called BSF [Bulla Spoil Facility],” Mr Finn said.
On page 125 of the deed, it says the state government and Project Co, or Transurban, “will not be responsible for the Tunnel Spoil storage solution (including the BSF Disposal Site) or the acts or omissions of BSF”.
Star Weekly understands the Bulla Spoils Facility Pty Ltd (BSF) is part of the Hi-Quality Group.
A Hi-Quality Group spokesperson said the company has a strong track record of safe operations in Bulla since 2003.
“The newly established Bulla Spoils Facility will be run to uphold the same high safety, operational and environmental standards,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Finn’s comments came after the first spill from a truck transporting waste from the WGTP to the facility, on March 23, at the roundabout at Wildwood and Sunbury roads.
Another spill occurred on Sunbury Road, on Friday, April 1, according to local Facebook groups.
The deed also says any delays caused by BSF or events outside of their control would not “give rise to breach by the state or Project Co under the State Project Documents”.
A Victorian government spokesperson said they had always been transparent about the disposal of soil on the West Gate Tunnel Project as an obligation for the D&C Subcontractor who has contracted Hi Quality to take the soil from tunnelling.
“These are standard provisions of a waste disposal contract,” the government spokesperson said.
“The person who stores the waste is responsible for it – something Mr Finn would know if he had ever delivered a project for his local community.”
