A Sunshine West chemical manufacturer has been fined almost $8000 for allowing vegetable oil to spill into the stormwater system.
The Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) discovered Tri-Tech Chemical Company was responsible for a “yellow-grey liquid” that was reported to be flowing from a drain into a tributary of Kororoit Creek on March 5.
The company has been fined $7773 for breaching the Environment Protection Act 1970.
The EPA spent two months investigating the cause of the spill, with testing conducted at three sites including one near Normanby Avenue, where Tri-Tech has its manufacturing plant.
EPA metro manager Dan Hunt said the spill was traced back to a ruptured water pipe that caused contaminated waste to begin to overflow into Normanby Avenue.
“The contaminated liquid escaped through a broken concrete bund [spill containment system] and flowed onto Normanby Avenue and into the stormwater system,” he said.
“While it is unknown how much oil escaped the site, thankfully the spill had no demonstrable impact on Kororoit Creek due to the rapid response by Melbourne Water, which prevented the oils moving further downstream.”
Tri-Tech was issued a remedial notice requiring it to fix the concrete bund.
It has since been fixed to the standards requested by the EPA.
Mr Hunt said the EPA expected businesses to prevent spills, to have infrastructure to contain spills and to have clean-up chemicals to prevent environmental impacts if spills did occur.
The EPA asks anyone who witnesses suspected pollution entering drains or creeks to call 1300 372 842.
Tri-Tech did not respond to
Star Weekly’s inquiries by deadline.
