Coliban Region Water Corporation has been ordered to pay a $75,000 donation, plus court costs, over a 2013 sewage spill of up to one million litres into Long Gully Creek in North Bendigo, impacting surrounding land occasionally used by children, dogs and dog owners.
The donation must be made to the North Central Catchment Management Authority for land engagement in the Long Gully area.
The company pleaded guilty at the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court yesterday to one count of permitting an environmental hazard under the Environment Protection Act 1970.
The court heard a council worker was out spraying weeds around 9am on 21 July 2013 when they noticed overflowing sewage near the corner of Holdsworth Road and Prouses Road in North Bendigo.
When Coliban Water workers arrived shortly after, they saw tree roots had blocked the sewerage system, causing the sewage to escape and overflow from two manholes into Long Gully Creek and surrounding land which backed onto residential properties.
The court heard the block had been cleared about 11am, public access to the area had been restricted and a vacuum tanker was brought in to remove about 208,000 litres of sewage.
EPA visited the site the same day to investigate the spill site and take water samples. The officer found a large number of sewage solids covered the surrounding area.
While the exact volume of the spill was unknown, it is estimated between 500,000 to one million litres of sewage had spilled from the system and that a 1.5km stretch of Long Gully Creek was impacted.
Water samples taken from EPA and Coliban Water found E.coli levels exceeded levels safe for primary or secondary contact and there was potential serious risk to human health should people come in contact with the water. The high levels of E.coli returned to low levels by 13 August.
The court was told Coliban Water spent the next week cleaning up the area and that it monitored water quality in the creek after the incident until it had returned to satisfactory levels.
In sentencing, Magistrate Mithen said the community was well aware of this case, its effects and ramifications and that the incident posed a risk to human health and aquatic life and was a significant event.
The Magistrate also acknowledged that Coliban Region Water Corporation is a good corporate citizen and that the incident was not deliberate and was dealt with proactively and quickly.
Coliban Water was ordered to enter an undertaking for a period of 12 months and make a donation of $75,000 to the North Central Catchment Management Authority for engagement of land in the Long Gully area.
The undertaking was without conviction and Coliban Water was also ordered to pay EPA costs of $18,782.83. It has also been ordered to make a publication order of the offence and court result in the Herald Sun, The Age and the Bendigo Advertiser.
EPA Victoria North West Team Leader, Danny Childs said while the incident was dealt with swiftly, it served as a reminder of water authorities to ensure that they had adequate monitoring and maintenance programs in place.
“This includes ensuring underground sewage pipes are in good working order to identify and address high risk areas and prevent possible incidents such as large sewer spills from occurring in the first place.”
“The prevention of these types of incidents through appropriate maintenance programs such as closed circuit television assessments and the monitoring of flows in the sewerage system help identify areas of infrastructure at risk of failing from a result of the likes of blockages.”