Diesel spill into Westernport Bay

On Monday 2^nd July at 1300 hrs Phillip Island brigade was responded to assist Police at the Cowes Jetty, Code 3. 

Upon arrival, crews were confronted with an oil slick in Westernport Bay with a Bulk Tanker moored off the township in the shipping lane. 

Initial size up from the crew was not looking good however after investigating the scene it was soon realised that the slick was a result of Diesel coming through the storm water drain system and absolutely nothing to do with the ship moored in the bay. 

The Brigade quickly realised that this was a substantial leak and that fumes and fuel was flushing out onto the rocks and into Westernport Bay. 

Westernport Bay is an environmentally sensitive area and it was quickly realised that this incident was beyond the normal response capacity of Phillip Island and would become a multi agency response.

Phillip Island was supported at the call by San Remo initially then by Bass Coast Group Officer and FCV, Wonthaggi Hazmat, Dandenong Hazmat Detection Vehicle and Officer Support with their marine spill response booms to trap and clean the storm water that was flowing onto the beach.

Crews were assisted by Bass Coast Shire Council, Victoria Police, Parks Victoria, Phillip Island Nature Parks and the EPA in checking the stormwater system of Cowes which was a painstaking task to track potential leak sites.  The service stations were checked first and quickly ruled out.

Crews spent approx 4 hours checking the sewer network of Cowes and by the end of the day the quantity had decreased significantly.  Suspicions as to the source were had however no definitive source was located.  The site that potentially was the cause of the spill was over a kilometre away from the beach.

We had been experiencing significant rainfall throughout Bass Coast for the last fortnight and this caused the fuel to be washed into the storm water system and then into the bay.

Crews from Phillip Island, Wonthaggi Hazmat and Dandenong Hazmat Detection were tasked to look for the source whilst other crews from Phillip Island, Wonthaggi and Officer were tasked with cleaning up the spill on the rocks and placing booms into the storm water system to capture the contaminants in the storm water.

Under the direction of Group Officer Damien O’Connor a multi agency Emergency Management team was formed in the car park of Cowes Jetty and from the bonnet of the Bass Coast FCV plans were devised in how to best combat the incident.

By 1700 the amount of contaminants in the storm water had reduced significantly and the readings in the drains had reduced.  Under the expert advise of EPA it was decided to leave the booms in situ overnight and stand all units down as the main danger had passed and with additional rain predicted overnight any left over residue would be flushed down the mains and into the booms.

Appliances on scene at the incident included Phillip Island Pumper, Tanker, Slip On and FCV, San Remo Pumper initially, Wonthaggi Hazmat, Dandenong Hazmat Detection Vehicle, Officer Support and Bass Coast FCV.

So the lesson from this call to the members was never take a pager message for granted as what you find at a call may be totally different to what you think or expect!