The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has come under fire for not investigating allegations of a foreign vessel polluting Hobsons Bay beaches by washing its hatches out into Port Phillip Bay.
In a story broken by the Weekly last week, Captain George Mylonas denied claims by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) that the crew of MV Blue Eternity caused pollution by performing illegal hatch-cleaning at anchorage last month.
Asked by the Weekly where the crew had cleaned out the hatches. Captain Mylonas did not respond.
ITF Australian representative Matt Purcell said the union had previously complained to the EPA, “only to receive no response or little investigation”.
He said the minister should “beef up” the EPA and Port Authority to police environmental risks.
“Clearly, they are not equipped to handle such complaints. I’ve just received reliable information that 13 drums of waste were removed from the vessel when it came alongside at F Appleton Dock, Melbourne. That in itself proves that they performed hatch cleaning at anchorage.”
Despite the Blue Eternity being the third foreign vessel recently accused of cleaning its hatches at anchorage, EPA spokeswoman Tanya O’Shea denied there was a problem.
“There is currently only an alleged incident so it can’t be a recurring issue as there is no evidence as to what has taken place,” she said.
“The emphasis should be on reporting pollution immediately rather than on speculation. Reporting means we can respond, collect samples and determine what has taken place and whether regulatory action is called for.”
Labor’s Ports spokeswoman Natalie Hutchins reported the alleged pollution to the head of the EPA on Monday last week after collecting water samples from Williamstown and Altona beaches.
The Weekly has learnt the EPA was doing routine water testing on one day that the hatch was allegedly cleaned, but the tests were only for E. coli.
Ms Hutchins, whose volunteer assistant Don Townsend collected more water samples from Altona beach last week, said the EPA had not “found any evidence because its regular testing didn’t test for coal or sulphate particles, just for bacteria”.
