Benjamin Millar
By Benjamin Millar
Western Water has been slapped with a $110,000 penalty over a sewage spill near the Werribee River in Eynesbury.
Western Region Water Corporation, which trades as Western Water, will pay $110,000 to a platypus conservation project run by a local volunteer group following an Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) prosecution for the 2018 sewage spill.
The EPA investigation began after a one metre split in a sewerage pipe that leaked for several days in April 2018 sent sewage flowing across open land to a nearby drain that leads to the Werribee River.
EPA regional manager Stephen Lansdell said the leak involved an estimated two megalitres of sewage, but two factors helped to limit the environmental damage.
“An unused dam trapped some of the leak, and a release of 140 megalitres of irrigation water from upstream the same day helped to dilute any sewage that reached the river,” he said.
The sewage was being piped from Eynesbury to the Melton South sewage treatment plant when the leak occurred.
The Sunshine Magistrates Court sentenced the Western Region Water Corporation without conviction after it entered a plea of guilty to one charge of causing or permitting an environmental hazard.
Mr Lansdell said the $110,000 penalty will go to the Werribee River Association for its ‘Progressing Platypus’ project.
“One of the great things about the Environment Protection Act 1970 is that it gives the court the power to order offenders to fund projects for the restoration and enhancement of the environment,” Mr Lansdell said.
“In this case, it’s a community group’s project that will survey the platypus population and water quality in the Werribee River, plant new native habitat and educate the community on threats to the platypus and what people can do to help this precious native species.”
The Corporation was also ordered to pay EPA’s legal costs.
