A Maddingley business is being investigated after 1200 litres of black engine oil contaminated the Werribee River earlier this month.
Environment Protection Authority, Melbourne Water and Moorabool council officers investigated the spill at Peelmans Lane, Maddingley, tracing it back to a company in the industrial estate.
Melbourne Water put booms out in the river on Thursday, January 5, to contain the oil. A second boom was put in to capture any residue after the clean-up.
EPA south-west manager Carolyn Francis said the company, which hasn’t been named, is required to clean up the spill, clean the stormwater drains and remove the oil.
She said a remedial notice had been issued, requiring works to be completed by February 10. The company has also been ordered to prevent any recurrence of the spill.
“A spill of this volume could have significant impacts on the environment,” Ms Francis said.
“Thankfully, prompt community reporting allowed the EPA to ensure that the oil spill was quickly contained and removed from the river, reducing any potential impact.”
There have been reports of oil spills in the same location over the past six months, but Ms Francis said these were unlikely to be from the company being investigated over this month’s incident.
There are serious concerns for the native wildlife and flora of the river after residents spotted a duck covered in black oil and fish coming up to the surface of the river where the oil spill occurred.
Moorabool Environment Group president Ben Courtice said Friends of the Werribee River group members had also spotted a platypus a hundred metres downstream of the spill site a few weeks ago.
“This is frustrating,” Mr Courtice said. “Because if someone has an EPA licence to handle that quantity of hazardous waste, they should also have the condition it should be stored in such a way that it can’t get into stormwater drains.
“So how did it get into the river? Either someone decided they’d be cheap and deliberately disposed of it, or it was an accident, which would have to be negligence.”
Melbourne Water west regional services acting manager Ben English said the impact of the recent spill should be minimal.
Anyone found guilty of failing to comply with EPA notices for this type of incident faces fines of up to $370,000 .
