FURTHER details have emerged surrounding an industrial spill at the Australian Paper Maryvale mill last week, following an ongoing investigation by the Environment Protection Authority.
Last Sunday night 30,000 litres of wastewater was released into the Latrobe River after a small section of pipe carrying trade wastewater to the Gippsland Water Factory failed.
Interim testing by the EPA later last week found there has been no detectable environmental impact on the river.
“EPA’s investigation has now turned to whether the trade waste spill has breached any of Australian Paper’s licence conditions or caused any environmental harm to a local billabong system where the majority of the liquid from the spill was contained,” an update on the EPA’s website stated.
“The remaining liquid in the billabong system was pumped back into Australian Paper’s treatment lagoons.
“EPA will communicate the final results to the community as soon as they are available, which is anticipated to be within the next two weeks.”
Australian Paper spokesman Craig Dunn said Maryvale’s billabong treatment system had been returned to normal operating conditions on Thursday in consultation with the EPA.
