Three words that perfectly describe the penalties handed out to the two men behind the illegal dumping of hundreds of tyres in Eaglehawk.

By no measure and under no circumstances are the $1820 fines issued by Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority remotely adequate.

Where is the deterrent? All these penalties do is steel people prepared to deface our environment to dump smarter, not to refrain from dumping.

Illegal dumping is a massive problem across central Victoria.

Cleaning up the messes left by people too cheap to dispose of their waste appropriately costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

The dumping of unwanted tyres, electrical items, furniture, garbage, toxic chemicals and asbestos is rife in our communities.

It not only befouls our natural landscape, but poses a genuine risk to human and animal health.

Identifying and prosecuting the culprits of illegal dumping is notoriously difficult. It stands to reason that dumpers generally operate in remote areas and often under the cover of darkness.

So when regulatory bodies such as the EPA are able to collar offenders, such as in the Eaglehawk case, then they must send a strong message.

The EPA’s own website boasts that individuals caught dumping “tyres, manufacturing and demolition waste” can “attract a maximum court penalty of $610,700 or seven years’ imprisonment”.

So how does it arrive at a combined fine of just $3640 for the people behind the tyre dumping at Eaglehawk?

The decision boggles the mind – and demands explanation. Clearly it fails the pub test. If everyone else has to pay the formidable cost for the correct disposal of their waste, then surely those that so blatantly break the rules should be dealt with more harshly?

No doubt there will be some who bemoan the high tip fees or the lack of a council-run hard waste collection service.

These are legitimate concerns and there should be robust discussion about whether changes need to be made. But this is no excuse for people to flout the laws.

If the state government and its environment watchdog, the EPA, are serious about stamping out dumping, then it must get serious with its penalties.

- Ross Tyson, deputy editor