A North West water corporation has been fined more than $7000 after they failed to clean-up a sewage spill in a timely manner on a private property in Ararat.
The estimated 500,000 litre spill contaminated the property’s dam water, used by the owner to swim and train horses for harness racing, and left a pool of sewage waste water and solids in a paddock.
It took Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water four days to remove all wastewater and solids from the paddock following the spill, which happened in February this year. It took them 10 days to fully disinfect the spill site due to difficulty sourcing appropriate contractors.
Environment Protection Authority Victoria Manager North West Scott Pigdon said the incident caused a significant environmental hazard.
“Sewage solids in the private paddock and E-coli levels showed there was a high risk of exposure to the landholder,” he said.
“This was heightened by the landholder’s daily handling of horses that were found walking in contaminated areas and possibly drinking from the contaminated dam.
“EPA also observed a large number of dead yabbies around the private farm dam which appeared to have died due to sewage contamination of the dam.
“EPA had previously directed GWMW to improve its timeliness and capacity to respond to sewage spills threatening surface waters through formal notices issued prior to this incident.”
Mr Pigdon encouraged the community to report pollution to EPA on 1300 372 842 or by visiting www.epa.vic.gov.au