EPA to meet with Van Dairy on effluent management plans after dairy giant's regulatory failures

During budget estimates this week, Legislative Councillor Tania Rattray asked Environment Minister Roger Jaensch to provide an update on how many outstanding environmental notices remained in place for Van Dairy.

Van Dairy, also formerly known as VDL, is Australia's largest and oldest dairy farm and is based primarily at Circular Head, in the far North-West of Tasmania.

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However, last year, it was revealed that 83 per cent of Van Dairy's farms were not meeting the Effluent Management Code, after an internal audit report was leaked.

Images of effluent, pollution and dead cows in the rivers around the farms were also uncovered by the Tasmanian Greens.

Last week, Environment Protection Agency director Wes Ford said the EPA was satisfied with the direction Van Dairy was heading in relation to effluent management and improvements on its management systems.

"In relation to Van Dairy, the Circular Head Council issued a number of environmental protection notices in April last year," Mr Ford told the Legislative Council committee.

"Those notices were issued under the Environmental Pollution Control Act, then the council asked the EPA to undertake an audit of those notices."

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Mr Ford said since then he had used another part of the Act to require Van Dairy to provide effluent management plans for 11 individual farms.

"We will be meeting with Van Dairy to enact those in the coming weeks."

Mr Ford said after Van Dairy had sold off a number of farms, in response to the audits, it had improved its effluent management. However that was because it had less farms to manage.

In response to a question about whether the EPA was "comfortable with the direction Van Dairy was heading in relation to effluent management" Mr Ford said "yes".

VDL has been under scrutiny since the sale of the company to Van Dairy, with mass high-profile departures among executive staff plaguing the company in 2018.

That year, five independent directors quit, citing a failure by the owner to invest in irrigation systems and maintenance for sustainability.

VDL was founded in 1825. It is made up of 23 separate farms running more than 30,000 cows. The bulk of the farms are located at Circular Head.

Chinese businessman Xianfeng Lu purchased the company in 2015 after setting up the investment group Moon Lake for the purpose.

Moon Lake then re-branded to Van Dairy to allow the company to leverage on its commitment to freight milk directly to China.

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Approval of the sale has come under scrutiny, with Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson calling for greater control by the federal government, after it was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board by former Prime Minister and then Treasurer Scott Morrison.

The investigation into effluent management concerns at VDL was being managed by the Circular Head Council in conjunction with the Environment Protection Agency and the Tasmanian Dairy Industry Authority, under NRE Tasmania.

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