A dead sheep in an irrigation channel near the feedlot.
Greater Shepparton City Council is taking a Kialla feedlot to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal after complaints of dust, odour and water hazards.
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Council will seek an enforcement order forcing the owners of the sheep feedlot to comply with conditions of its planning permit.
Neighbours allege the Mitchell Rd feedlot causes odour and dust hazards.
However, the business has said it is complying with the planning permit and will have legal representation at a hearing.
Resident Tim Jackson lives within 300 metres of the feedlot and has been urging the EPA and council to take action for several years.
He said he was exasperated at what he described as the slow pace of response from enforcement authorities.
Paddocks surrounding the Gaza lamb feedlot.
The feedlot is obliged to comply with EPA rules, but the EPA has referred requests for action from Mr Jackson to council.
A hearing is scheduled in VCAT for February next year.
Business partner Zoi Gagiano said there was only one issue being pursued by council and that was over a road cross-over that was supposed to be sealed, and she said that process was under way.
Mr Jackson, who has three children, is particularly concerned about the potential for diseases, such as Q fever, to be spread through dust.
Q fever is a bacterial infection spread in dust and by birds. Symptoms can be severe and may develop into a chronic illness.
“I’ve had Q fever and it’s debilitating,” Mr Jackson said.
Ms Gagiano told Country News the sheep were healthy, they had been vaccinated and drenched and the feedlot experienced a very low death rate.
“Everything the council has asked me to do, I have done,” she said.
On the complaint of dust, Ms Gagiano blamed other farm properties for the issue.
“This is a farming zone and this happens in farming areas,” she said.
She said the business had 15 truck loads of crushed rock delivered to counter any risk of dust creation.
A neighbour says the feedlot kicks up dust, which drifts across Mitchell Rd.
The EPA advised Mr Jackson that council had commenced legal proceedings early last year, but Mr Jackson said council had been slow to respond to his complaints and he was unhappy that he would have to wait until February for the VCAT hearing.
Mr Jackson said the farm produced a strong smell of effluent and he had photos of dead sheep in the Goulburn-Murray Water irrigation channel that ran past the feedlot.
Ms Gagiano said sheep had occasionally escaped from the pens and had ended up in the channel, but they had been removed as soon as they were discovered.
Ms Gagiano said four sheep had escaped through a gap at a gate, and the sheep that fell into the channel had been recovered and the point of escape repaired.
She challenged the complaints about odour.
“There is no odour,” she said.
Mr Jackson has had water samples from what he said was feed pad run-off tested by a laboratory.
Ms Gagiano said run-off was not escaping from the property but may have come from other farms.
She said she had had visits from Agriculture Victoria and the EPA over the years and they had apparently been satisfied.
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