00:00When you visit a rubbish tip, you expect a bit of a smell.
00:08But residents in suburbs surrounding the Tamala Park landfill say they're sick of living with
00:13its foul stench.
00:14Stop the stink!
00:16They've woken up with this horrible gassy stuff that's making their throats sore, making
00:22their eyes water, making them wretched and retching.
00:27Depends on which way the wind's blowing, I guess, you get that pongy smell.
00:30The site services around 800,000 residents from seven councils from Joondalup to Victoria
00:36Park, taking waste from almost 60,000 residential red bins.
00:42Fresh waste on the surface is the main culprit.
00:45The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has received more than 2,000 DOTA
00:50complaints this year.
00:52Last year there were 113.
00:57Residents say the bad smell comes and goes depending on a few factors, like which way
01:01the wind is blowing, how hot it is and whether it's been raining.
01:06The Mundari Regional Council says it's doing its best to contain the smell.
01:11We've stopped the delivery of materials to landfill at night.
01:14We've also stopped the delivery of all commercial waste loads which are happening on site.
01:18We've fundamentally increased the amount of cover which we put on our landfills on a daily
01:22basis.
01:23So that's done in a manner to try and prevent any odours escaping from the landfill into
01:28the environment.
01:30The council also recently installed three gas extraction pipelines which will generate
01:35electricity and reduce the odour.
01:38Experts say ideally there wouldn't be a smell.
01:41If the perceived effect is increased over time, that's a cause for concern.
01:46Ideally a properly operated landfill should have no odour.
01:50The EMRC says residents should expect some smells and wants people to continue reporting
01:55bad odours.
01:56It lets us know exactly what's happening in the community and it also lets us know whether
02:00the measures which we're implementing are making a difference.
02:03The landfill is not expected to close for another four years, leaving residents in limbo.
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