For weeks, Victoria's EPA has been sending teams of inspectors out to industrial businesses across the state for surprise checks, designed to prevent another serious chemical spill.
abc.net.au/news/epa-inspection-blitz/101376498It's at the end of a suburban street, in a spot between a muddy cul-de-sac and the banks of the Werribee River, that bubbles spew out of a hard-to-see drain.
"We know this is a drain that is connected up into the industrial estates, but we can't just make assumptions about where it has come from," Mr Miezis explains.Inspector Sara Durey collects water samples from a drain in Bacchus Marsh.The EPA had a team in Bacchus Marsh for days last week, running unannounced checks on 30 industrial businesses — everything from mechanics to panel beaters to manufacturing sites.
While drains aren't a very sexy topic of conversation, and largely go unnoticed by most of us, the EPA knows they can also pose a significant risk to our waterways.Stormwater drains have been a focus of recent EPA inspections."We are focused very much on the Werribee River, but also on the Lerderderg River here in Bacchus Marsh," Mr Miezis says.
Officers have issued about 200 pieces of 'compliance advice' as well as 16 breach notices to businesses needing to do more to meet their environmental obligations.The breach notices cover a wide range of issues, including one business which was given a notice for causing a pollution event from liquid waste, while other businesses were reported for failure to prevent runoff into stormwater, failure to contain wash water and failures to properly store or handle chemicals or waste.
That spill is still being investigated by the EPA - the company issued a statement earlier this year expressing its deep concern over the event. The former Victorian Greens MP now chairs the Anti-Toxic Waste Alliance – an organisation which brings together about 20 different community groups and unions.
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