Cockburn Cement has been ordered to shut down over the Easter weekend, amid persistent complaints from locals about an “unreasonable” stink.
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation issued a new prevention notice this week, ordering the company to “completely cease odour-causing shell sand” operations at its plant in Munster on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
New restrictions will also apply every weekend from 12pm Saturday to 8pm Sunday, after 114 submissions included concerns the odour “is getting worse”.
The company’s bid for a 5-year licence extension has been knocked back, with only a one-year extension granted and a condition that CCL must install a regenerative thermal oxidiser by August.
The April shutdowns were welcomed by local Labor MP David Scaife.
“This isn’t a full or permanent fix, but it puts real limits and pressure on the plant,” he said.
“I’ll be monitoring compliance this month and I’ll update the community on the thermal oxidiser trial later this year.”
Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett said the community remains concerned and that there were still “unresolved issues” with odour reduction methods.
CCL had argued that a longer extension was needed to support financial investment towards mitigating the problem.
“CCL accept the 1 year extension of the licence duration however commented that a 5-year extension would have allowed them to commit and focus on the full delivery of their odour reduction plan (ORP) with certainty,” the DWER report said.
It was previously fined $245,000 in 2023 for reaching the Environmental Protection Act, after claims that “unreasonable smells” could be detected up to eight kilometres away from the site.
Yangebup resident Frank Van Wees told the Supreme Court the smell was horrendous.
“Very unpleasant . . . with an intensity of eight or nine out of 10,” he said.
