Mobil Refining Australia Pty Ltd has been found guilty and ordered to pay
$150,000 to an environmental project for a contravention of the Environment
Protection Act 1970 (Vic) after oil spilled at the Gellibrand Terminal, Port of
Melbourne.
After a contested hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in May,
Magistrate Angela Bolger found Mobil Refining Australia Pty Ltd guilty of the
charge of causing an environmental hazard on 21 August 2009.
The Court heard that as crude oil was transferred from the ship MT Leyte Spirit
to Mobil’s Gellibrand Terminal, the loading arm fractured in high winds causing
oil to discharge into the water.
During clean-up about 180kg of liquid crude oil was recovered from the water
around the Pier, and more than 3000kg of oil-contaminated soil was recovered
from St Kilda beach.
The spill caused a six-day clean-up operation with the oil coming ashore near
the St Kilda penguin colony.
The oil was seen in the water near the pier and on St Kilda and Middle Park
beaches.
In a separate hearing on April 30 2012, the ship owner Teekay Navion Offshore
Loading Pte Ltd pleaded guilty to a charge under the Environment Protection Act
1970, and was ordered to pay $100,000 towards an environmental project and
$100,000 in costs to EPA.
EPA’s CEO John Merritt said that under Victorian legislation large penalties
can and will be enforced when companies fail to take their environmental
responsibility seriously.
“EPA takes all circumstances involving the discharge of oil very seriously,” Mr
Merritt said.
“Oil pollution can have severe repercussions to Victoria’s coastline and
waterways. It is fortunate the spill was relatively small.”
The court ordered Mobil to pay $150,000 to Port Phillip EcoCentre for the “Bay
Care Action and Awareness Project”, and EPA court costs of $135,000.