Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) will attend a community meeting in Inglewood tonight to keep the local community informed of the ongoing clean-up of a huge spill of fuel and diesel that occurred last week.
EPA’s Acting North West Manager Danny Childs said that the meeting would occur at the Senior Citizens’ Centre in Inglewood at 6pm on Wednesday 13 April.
“EPA wants to keep the community fully updated about the cleaning up the contained spill and will explain the thorough process being undertaken and answer any questions they might have,” Mr Childs said.
Mr Childs said that the clean-up was progressing very well, but given the size of the spill it would take some time for EPA and other agencies to restore the area to its former state.
“There has already been over 1000m3 of contaminated soil removed, and over the coming days more will be taken away; this will eventually be replaced with clean fill once EPA knows the site is free from contamination,” Mr Childs said.
“The focus of cleaning up the site will soon turn to the stormwater system to remove any contamination from both above and below the surface.”
Mr Childs said EPA also attended both St Mary’s and Inglewood primary schools yesterday to explain the process to about 50 local school kids.
“EPA wanted to tell local children, who have spotted EPA cars around the area, all about the process and to answer their hundreds of questions about what had been going on,” Mr Childs said.
Mr Childs said following tonight’s meeting EPA would assess community feedback about holding further information sessions.