Elsie Lange
Hume councillors have expressed their disappointment about a spill from a truck transporting soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project (WGTP) to the Hi-Quality disposal site and voted to take action.
The muddy load came off a CPB John Holland Joint Venture truck at the roundabout at Wildwood and Sunbury roads on Wednesday, March 23, Star Weekly reported last week.
At a council meeting on Monday, March 28, mayor Carly Moore took the unprecedented action of beginning general business to bring up the spill.
She moved for council to write to the chief executive of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and CPB John Holland Joint Venture
The letter would seek clarity on a range of issues from the cause of the spill, the risk posed to the community, actions taken to prevent recurrence and details of their spill management procedure.
“Our community is quite rightly concerned, I think that it is entirely appropriate that we seek answers on their behalf,” Cr Moore said.
“It is my expectation that the response to the letter that I will send will provide some clarity on how exactly this happened and what is being done to ensure that this does not occur again in the future and that we have some assurance that our community will be safe.”
Councillor Jack Medcraft said he was glad the community could see how seriously council took their complaints, while councillor Trevor Dance thanked Cr Moore for raising the “ridiculous situation”.
“Someone will get killed, it’s just a matter of time,” Cr Dance said.
Councillor Jodi Jackson said she saw the area after the cleanup and there was still “a lot of mud” on the road.
“The cleanup certainly didn’t mean my standards and I’m sure it didn’t meet the standards of our residents,” Cr Jackson said.
The CPB John Holland Joint Venture were asked for further comment but declined.
