The Tribunal refused the development licence for a 550,000 tonne per year waste transfer station, setting aside the deemed refusal to determine and ordering that no licence be granted. The decision turned on the applicant's failure to demonstrate that odour risk could be reduced to an acceptable level given that the proposed separation distance to sensitive residential receptors (approximately 220–250 metres) was half or less than the 500 metres recommended in the EPA Separation Distance Guidelines. Errors in dispersion modelling inputs, incomplete field odour surveillance data from a reference facility, unquantified fugitive emissions from truck queuing and door openings, and the sensitisation of the surrounding community to odour from an adjacent landfill all contributed to the Tribunal's conclusion that the risk remained unacceptable under s 69(4)(a) of the EP Act. The Tribunal found noise impacts could be managed to compliance and that the decision maker's Charter of Human Rights submissions lacked substantive foundation, particularly regarding the right to life (s 9) and children's rights (s 17(2)), declining to make a finding of Charter incompatibility given its substantive odour findings under the statutory framework.
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