A JUNORTOUN company has been fined $8000 after it was discovered to be discharging a black oily substance into a stormwater drain, which then flowed into the Bendigo Regional State Park.
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Community members alerted the Environment Protection Authority to the substance in the drains under the O’Keefe Rail Trail on June 29.
EPA officers traced the substance back to the Atlas Road site of road surfacing and asphalt manufacturing company Sprayline.
The oil was leaking from a failed triple interceptor system.
EPA north west manager Scott Pigdon said the leak was avoidable, but it only posed a “minor risk” to public health and the environment.
“It is not known how long the triple interceptor system had failed, or how much of the substance had overflowed into the stormwater system and drained in the Bendigo Regional State Park,” he said.
“An inspection of all five on-site triple interceptor pits and the four on-site stormwater pits revealed they were all full of the liquid.”
Sprayline was issued a clean-up notice, and fined for discharging industrial waste.