LAUNCHING Place’s Home Hotel has been fined more than $5000 following an unlicensed discharge of partially treated sewage into the Yarra River.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) of Victoria has fined the hotel, which is sited on the Warburton Highway at Launching Place, a total of $5421.
EPA Victoria senior manager of urban services, Stuart McConnell said EPA officers inspected the premises of Border Colley Pty Ltd (trading as the Home Hotel) following a report of sewage discharging out a pipe into the river.
“The company was suspected of discharging partially treated effluent into the storm water drainage system, which then flowed into an unnamed watercourse before entering the Yarra River,” he said.
“Officers dye tested the wastewater effluent drainage and took samples of the wastewater, which confirmed the hotel as the source.”
Mr McConnell said the company was licensed to discharge wastewater treated to a specific level and the discharge on this occasion did not meet that requirement.
“This amounts to a breach of the company’s licence and they’ve been fined accordingly,” he said.
“While we have sought a long term solution from the hotel, they need to be accountable for protecting the environment and complying with its statutory requirements.”
Mr McConnell said the hotel needed to remedy the situation or stop discharging, and that the company had 28 days to pay the fine or have the matter dealt with in court.
Home Hotel’s licensee Peter Carter said it was disappointing that the incident had occurred and that the hotel had been fined.
“Unfortunately this has occurred and we are doing everything in our power to rectify the problem,” he said.
Mr Carter said he believed the cause of the sewage discharge was beyond the hotel’s control and that he was working with the EPA and Yarra Valley water to resolve the issue.
Stink over hotel dump
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