Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) has fined Bairnsdale company BS Metals Pty Ltd over $8,000 for the second time this year; this time for failing to comply with an official notice requiring the clean up and management of contaminated soil and industrial waste.
EPA Gippsland Regional Manager Zac Dornom says EPA issued the company with three Pollution Abatement Notices (PANs) after an inspection showed waste oil from wrecked cars contaminating its Kyle Street scrap metal premises and the nature strip outside.
“That contamination presents the possibility that waste hydrocarbons might reach the stormwater system and flow into nearby waterways,” Mr Dornom said.
“The PANs required the company to have an Environmental Site Assessment of the level and spread of the contamination, and organise a written Emergency Management Plan and a Fire Risk Assessment,” he said.
“When the PAN deadline passed, EPA officers found the company had not conducted the Environmental Site Assessment.”
“Any EPA regulatory notice gives clear deadlines and instructions on what’s required, and businesses must understand it’s a responsibility to the environment and this community,” Mr Dornom said.
“There are experts that can be hired to do the job and clear national standards for acceptable levels of hydrocarbons on commercial and industrial sites,” he said.
“A fine like this could have been avoided easily by meeting the deadline and complying with the requirements of the Pollution Abatement Notice.”
BS Metal Pty Ltd was fined earlier in 2020 for the original offence of depositing industrial waste consisting of waste engine oil on the site.
Under the Environment Protection Act 1970 and the Infringements Act 2006, the company has the right to have the decision to issue the infringement notice reviewed or alternatively to have the matter heard and determined by a court.
Members of the public can report pollution by calling EPA’s 24 hour hotline on 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842).
