By Jessica Micallef
The Kyneton Magistrates Court has ordered Coliban Water to fund a $100,000 environmental project after a burst pipeline sent sewage flowing into Kyneton’s Post Office Creek in July 2016.
Environment Protection Authority executive director Damian Wells said EPA prosecuted the water company after an issue at its Jeffery Street pumping station caused more than one million litres of raw sewage to spill in Kyneton.
“The pipe burst just before midnight and it wasn’t until 9am before maintenance workers spotted the lower than usual flows into the Kyneton Water Reclamation Plant and raised the alarm,” Mr Wells said.
“Coliban Water reported the spill to EPA, and environment protection officers arrived to find a constant flow of fast-running sewage entering Post Office Creek.
“The creek was flowing strongly at the time, which helped clear the contamination and Coliban Water pumped contaminated water from affected land.
“The company has since installed automatic alarms at the pumping station and the treatment plant [and] a pump station management plan has been developed.”
Coliban Water pleaded guilty to one charge of causing or permitting an environmental hazard.
The magistrate didn’t record a conviction but ordered Coliban Water to publish the details of the case and pay EPA’s legal costs of more than $12,000.
Coliban Water was also ordered to pay $100,000 to conduct an Aboriginal Waterway Assessment of the creek and nearby parts of the Campaspe River by Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation.
Dja Dja Wurrung chief executive Rodney Carter said the waterway assessment project was “really valuable” to bring together traditional, ecological and scientific knowledge to benefit the creek.
