Latest updates
Prevention Notice 202506
On 23 December 2025, the department issued a statutory Prevention Notice (PN) under section 73A of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act) to Cockburn Cement Limited (CCL). This action is a result of ongoing odour impacts on air quality in the City of Cockburn.
In line with the requirements of the PN, CCL must reduce its shell sand feed rate to 160 tonnes per hour or below from 1 January 2026 to 30 April 2026.
This feed rate reduction seeks to reduce odour concentrations and emission rates over the summer period.
A copy of the PN, including guidance on lodging an appeal, can be found on the department’s Environmental Enforcement webpage for statutory notices.
The Department is currently considering further regulatory actions to facilitate the reduction of odour generated by the premises.
Licence amendment application – Licence duration
In November 2025, CCL applied for a licence amendment to extend the duration of its licence by five years. The department will advertise the licence amendment application in January 2026 and invite comments from registered stakeholders. The comment period on the application will run for 21 days. The department will assess the application including any comments received from stakeholders.
Stakeholders will be notified by email of the decision. If granted, the conditions of the amended licence will be open to appeal for a 21-day period, with a copy of the amended licence, associated amendment report and guidance for lodging appeals available on the department’s website. As the department is no longer sending hard copy email notifications if you have not previously registered to receive email notifications and wish to be notified of licensing decisions related to CCL Munster, please email rsu@dwer.wa.gov.au requesting to be added to the stakeholder list for licence L4533/1967/15.
Licence amendment application – LKD Prilling infrastructure
On 1 October 2025 CCL applied to amend its licence to include the LKD prilling infrastructure to allow for its long term operation and to extend the works approval duration. The works approval was recently amended (October 2025) to allow CCL to continue operating the infrastructure
under time-limited operations and to allow time for the licence amendment application to be assessed.
Enforcement action
On 9 March 2023, CCL was fined $290,000 after being found guilty of allowing unreasonable emissions (odour) from its premises in Munster on six occasions between January and April 2019. Details of the prosecution can be found on the department's announcements page.
The Court was satisfied that the odour experienced by nearby residents was unreasonable and that CCL was the source of the odour. The prosecution followed several years of investigations by the department into ongoing complaints about odour and dust in the Cockburn area.
On 5 April 2023, CCL appealed the conviction and sentence relating to the 2019 charges in the Supreme Court. On 8 September 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions but reduced the fine from $290,000 to $245,000.
Following further investigations by the department into odour complaints, in January 2022 the department initiated a second prosecution against CCL relating to unreasonable emissions (odour). These charges relate to emissions which are alleged to have occurred between January and April 2020.
On 21 March 2025, CCL was found guilty and fined a total of $20,000 for unreasonable odour emissions that occurred in early 2020.
Complaints
The department is committed to securing long-term permanent solutions to reduce odour emissions and to achieve the best outcomes for everyone in the community. Community residents are reminded that it is important to immediately report odour and dust impacts at the time that they occur by calling the Environment Watch Hotline on 1300 784 782. The online reporting form can be used to lodge complaints after the impact has occurred. For odour, go to the odour reporting webpage. For dust, go to the dust reporting webpage.
Background
Show moreCockburn Cement Limited (CCL)
CCL's cement and lime manufacturing plant in Munster has been licensed (L4533/1967/15) under Part V, Division 3 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act) since 1987.
To investigate the extent of dust and odour issues, the department and CCL have implemented several programs in the Cockburn Area, including:
- Community Odour and Dust Monitoring Program (CODMP)
- Odour Patrol Programs
- Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Program
- Dust Sampling Program.
The key findings of these investigations are:
- CCL has been confirmed as one of several odour sources impacting the community.
- There are several dust sources impacting the community, making it difficult to clearly identify the specific sources.
A works approval was granted in August 2021, which allowed CCL to undertake shell sand feed diversion trials in its Kiln 6 pre-heater tower, aimed at reducing odour emissions from Kiln 6. Feed diversion trials were undertaken in 2022–23. The works approval expired in May 2023 with CCL submitting a report to the department on the results of the trials. The department completed a detailed scientific review of CCL’s report on the feed diversion trials and has continued to engage with CCL on next steps for feed diversion and a strategy for addressing odour emissions.
In November 2023, a works approval was granted allowing CCL to establish infrastructure to process lime kiln dust (LKD) from kiln 5 and kiln 6 into small spheres by adding water and agitating (prilling) the material. The prilling is intended to reduce the dustiness of LKD and dust emissions from the LKD disposal area. CCL has constructed the infrastructure and is currently preparing for its commissioning operating it under time limited operations on the works approval. The works approval was recently amended (August 2024) to allow CCL to continue commissioning the infrastructure under time-limited operations.
In February 2024, CCL applied for a licence amendment to extend the duration of its licence by 12 months. The department granted an amended licence in March 2024, with changes to the licence limited only to extending its expiry from 30 March 2024 to 30 March 2025 and an administrative update to its registered business address.
In August 2024, as part of its odour management strategy, CCL applied to amend its licence to allow the temporary operation of shell sand feed diversion for additional trials and monitoring, to assess the effectiveness of feed diversion in reducing odour. CCL also sought a 12-month extension to the licence, proposing a revised expiry date of 30 March 2026, to allow sufficient time to confirm the effectiveness of feed diversion and to finalise its odour reduction strategy for the premises.
In December 2024, an amended licence authorising the feed diversion trials was granted. The trials took place between December 2024 and April 2025. Following completion of the trials, CCL submitted a Feed Diversion Monitoring Report and an Odour Reduction Plan (ORP). In accordance with the licence, the ORP was required to be published and is available here.
The Feed Diversion Monitoring Report concluded that feed diversion, in isolation, is insufficient to resolve the unreasonable odour emissions from the premises.
The ORP outlines a combination of short-term odour reduction actions and pilot trials of two long-term odour reduction technologies. Short-term actions include implementation of an Odour Management and Monitoring Program (OMMP) for the 2025-26 summer period and redesign of the Kiln 6 stack to improve dispersion prior to the 2026-27 summer period.
The department has formed the view that the actions outlined in the OMMP to address odour impacts for the summer of 2025-26 are unlikely to result in a meaningful reduction of odour impacts. Accordingly, on 23 December 2025 CCL was issued a Prevention Notice under section 73A of the EP Act to reduce emissions from its operations.
The ORP also states that pilot scale trials for low temperature oxidation using ozone and regenerative thermal oxidation are planned for late 2026. If successful, CCL has indicated that
full-scale implementation would require two to three years, with completion expected by the end of 2029.
The department is currently liaising with CCL to determine if timeframes for the implementation of a long-term odour mitigation solution can be reduced.
Further regulatory actions are currently under consideration should the timeframes for the implementation of a long term odour solution remain unchanged.
More information
Show moreThe department will update this page as new information comes to hand.
The Department of Health has published information including frequently asked questions in relation to air pollution and health associated with emissions from Cockburn Cement. Go to general information and the frequently asked questions.
Submit a report to Environment WAtch
Show moreWhen you submit a report to Environment WAtch, you will receive a response from us acknowledging your submission. We may contact you for further information.
Not all matters reported to Environment WAtch are managed by the department. For reports that relate to another local government or other State or Australian Government agency, we will forward the report to the relevant authority. Please note you may remain anonymous.
You can call our Environment WAtch hotline on 1300 784 782 or use the form below to submit your report.
Print this page
