Coliban Water has been convicted and fined for discharging treated wastewater from the Kyneton Water Reclamation Plant to Snipes Creek at Edgecombe in 2019 in breach of its EPA licence.
Environment Protection Authority Victoria successfully argued in Kyneton Magistrates Court last Tuesday that Coliban Water must make a significant contribution to rehabilitating the damage it caused.
Coliban Water will pay $150,000 towards a Central Victorian Biolinks Alliance project to rehabilitate the ecosystem of the creek, which is a tributary of the Campaspe River, and will also be placed on a two-year bond and pay legal costs of $10,000 to EPA.
In December 2020, Coliban Water pleaded guilty to EPA charges of causing or permitting an environmental hazard and pollution of waters.
The court agreed to adjourn the matter until March 2, 2021 to allow EPA to complete an evaluation process consistent with the Inspiring Environmental Solutions Guidelines, which allows for court-ordered community projects to be funded.
Magistrate Patrick Southey found that, taking prior offences into account, Coliban Water should contribute to the EPA’s proposed program under the Environment Protection Act 1970.
The magistrate invited local landowners Kim Strawhorn and Huntly Barton to read aloud their victim impact statements to the court.
The farmers detailed considerable financial, physical and emotional hardship they had endured in order to protect their farms and livestock from the contaminated water.
“Being self employed I have lost countless hours of work and income, sleep and family time due to endless meetings and time contributed to dealing with this situation,” Mr Strawhorn read from his statement.
“We have been made to feel that our reliance and the importance that we place on the Campaspe River is insignificant and that it appears more important for Coliban Water to have somewhere to dump the trade waste they cannot manage.
“It has been incredibly frustrating and made managing our own business a nightmare.
“We were continually left with a total sense that there was a complete lack of accountability.”
EPA CEO Lee Miezis said the court ruled that Coliban Water should not have allowed the discharge.
“Having pleaded guilty to doing so, it will now pay to help work with the local community to restore Snipes Creek for the benefit of that community,” Mr Miezis said.
“EPA wants local communities to know that we will fight for them in court, to get them justice and to seek ways to repair the damage that has been done.”
Coliban Water managing director Damian Wells acknowledged the breaches of the Environment Protection Act 1970 in relation to the operation of the Kyneton Water Reclamation Plant.
“We pleaded guilty and respect the decision of the court to order us to fund $150,000 towards local creek restoration works,” he said.
“We recognise what happened in 2019 was unacceptable, and we are sorry for the impacts we had on downstream landowners, and the environment.
“In response to the operational shortcomings at the water reclamation plant, we have fast tracked a $17 million investment to upgrade the plant, with the Kyneton Solutions Project that is currently under way.
“The project will deliver a sustainable water reuse scheme that will help protect the Campaspe River, support local businesses and agriculture and serve the growing Kyneton community until 2040.”
