A Victorian Porsche dealership has been ordered to pay out $132,000 after its waste oil tank overflowed into a stormwater drain and into the Yarra River.
Porsche Retail Group Australia pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday to polluting a waterway and causing an environmental hazard after the incident at the Collingwood dealership last January.
Magistrate Shiva Pillai ordered the luxury car giant to pay $100,000 to Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation to fund an environmental rehabilitation project.
Porsche will also have to pay the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) costs, adding another $32,568 to the bill.
An EPA prosecutor told the court officers had to spend hours going through stormwater drainage systems to find the source of the spill after an early-morning runner reported a strong fuel smell coming from the river.
The luxury car dealer was ordered to pay out $130,000 after the spill. Source: AAP
Clean-up contractors estimated the oil was spilling into the system at one litre per minute for at least nine hours. In the final analysis, investigators could not determine exactly when the spill began.
Oil from the spill moved through about two kilometres of the Collingwood stormwater drain before entering the Yarra, where it moved another two kilometres downstream.
“One litre of oil can make one million litres of water unsafe,” the EPA prosecutor said.
The prosecutor told the court the underground waste oil storage tank did not have a cut off valve and some staff members were not told the tank had been full for more than a week.
While the magistrate found in the EPA's favour, he did not record a conviction against Porsche because it had since taken measures to make sure an incident like this could not happen again.
"One only hopes this was picked up early into the spill stage," magistrate Shiva Pillai said.
"Clearly, it’s concerning there was no release valve."
Speaking after the court handed down its ruling, EPA CEO Dr Cathy Wilkinson said she hoped the case would send a strong message to all businesses.
EPA Victoria CEO Dr Cathy Wilkinson said she hoped the case would send a strong message to other businesses. Source: EPA Victoria
"In this case, a shut off valve and better communication could have avoided hundreds of litres of oil entering the Yarra River and saved Porsche significant clean up and court costs. While Porsche argued this was accidental pollution, the eco-system suffers all the same," she said.
"EPA’s focus is on rehabilitation of affected areas and the order to pay $100,000 to the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation will help to improve water quality, re-vegetate the banks and investigate re-introducing native shellfish."
The Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation will use the $100,000 payment to fund environmental rehabilitation projects in the area.
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