The deadline closes Friday, May 7.

Residents were not satisfied that their concerns were answered during a virtual information session on April 29 and would like Water Sustainability Farm Ltd, the company behind the proposal, to host a face-to-face meeting to discuss community concerns.

An online petition has gained almost three hundred signatures, with a written petition garnering similar numbers, according to organisers Sharnee Lockhart and Sally Ison, both local residents.

Ms Lockhart said they plan to submit the petitions on the last day of the deadline, adding that the virtual meeting was never a success.

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"They held it on the busiest night that the Quantong community has," Ms Lockhart said.

"That's football training night, when we all eat dinner together at the club, and that's not just footballers it's for the whole community."

Ms Lockhart estimated six attendees, with a couple more joining during the Q&A segment at the end.

"It was under ten people," she said, noting she did not feel the community was well represented by the turnout.

Issues raised at the meeting included concerns about traffic on the unpaved limestone road near the site, the smell and the possibility of leakage into the water table.

"We're not against the project, just not here," Ms Lockhart said.

Ms Ison echoed Ms Lockhart, saying she was not against the project itself, but the location that was an issue.

"I just think it's one hundred percent the wrong location," Ms Ison said.

"I don't see why they can't build it somewhere, else, somewhere appropriate. Not opposite housing and not somewhere growing in population," she said.

"I would hate to see people not coming to Quantong [because of the farm]."

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According to Ms Ison, the community had been "ignored by the people doing it".

"I don't think they can guarantee that it's not going to smell, I don't think that they can guarantee that it's not going to leak into our water table," she said.

Ms Ison said she would like to see the EPA extend the submission window and Water Sustainability Ltd commit to a face to face meeting with residents.

"If that many people can go to the MCG, I don't see why a couple hundred can't go to a face to face meeting, talk about it properly and really voice our concerns," Ms Ison said.

"I think they've gone about it the wrong way."

Ms Ison said the construction began at the site before securing the requisite permits from the EPA and Horsham Rural City Council was a "pretty poor" sign.

"I think they should have done the right thing from day one, they should have ticked all the boxes immediately," she said.

An EPA spokesman said the authority had investigated the early construction and issued Water Sustainability Ltd a sanction in the form of a formal warning.

However, the spokesman noted that this would not prevent the company from receiving a permit.

Ms Lockhart's husband, Matthew, said the construction date "showed a total disregard towards authorities, protocols and the community".

"How can we trust them when they act in this manner?" Mr Lockhart said.

Ms Lockhart said the EPA submission window needed to be extended as many Quantong residents were only becoming aware of the proposal.

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Close neighbours were informed of the project in early February. Some were taken on a tour of the Australian Plant Protein facility in Horsham on February 25; however, construction began on the project late last year.

Ms Lockhart said the community asked why the brine couldn't be sent to sites near Warrnambool and Portland where other companies such as Iluka Mines send their "salty water", and there is less risk of salt leaking into the water table.

Ms Lockhart said the company responded that the proposal was too expensive and that those facilities were full capacity.

"Drying and harvesting salt and compost happens on farming land at many locations in the Wimmera-Mallee region," Mr Blair said.

In answering concerns about the traffic would place "minimal" on the road system according to Mr Blair.

As currently proposed, four truckloads a day would transport waste to the site.

"Fifty-seven thousand litres of water will be dumped, seven days a week, for thirty years, and that's before they expand," Ms Lockwood said.

"We're not going to let them get away with it; absolutely not going to let them get away with it," Ms Lockhart said.

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