A Thornbury service station has carried out immediate repairs to several of its pump lines after EPA Victoria identified leaking underground petroleum infrastructure that would contaminate and endanger the local environment.
In early December EPA issued a remedial notice to the Yarraside Service Station Pty Ltd located in Darebin Road, Thornbury. The notice required integrity testing of underground petroleum infrastructure An EPA officer received the report which identified leaks in three underground suction lines for E10 and diesel.
“Realising there was an issue that required immediate action, we used our powers to issue a Prohibition Notice which immediately required the lines be shut, isolated and repaired. It’s the first time we have used this power,” EPA Northern Metropolitan Acting Regional Manager Mike Tangtatco said.
“We considered the risk to the environment to be severe enough that immediate action was necessary. Since the notice was issued, the service station has moved quickly to repair two lines which are now compliant and operational. The remaining E10 line is expected to also be repaired shortly. While this is the first time that we’ve used a Prohibition Notice for this purpose, this will become our standard approach when leaking underground petroleum infrastructure is identified.”
Mr Tangtatco said the risk of the fuel leaking to the environment was not acceptable. A separate remedial notice has also been issued requiring the delineation of soil and groundwater contamination, an assessment of the risk of harm to human health and the environment, and site remediation options. It is intended that additional notices will be issued with a view to manage identified contamination including clean up where reasonably practicable.
“All Victorians, businesses as well, have a duty to act to prevent harm to the environment. As the service station had not put appropriate controls to mitigate the further discharge of fuel into the environment once the source was identified, we used our powers to enforce compliance.”
