Hobsons Bay council says it doesn’t believe seaweed from shoreline it manages caused an odour across Melbourne’s west.
The EPA’s pollution hotline received about 400 calls between January 10 and 15 from people reporting a smell described as sewage or seaweed.
Complaints came from numerous suburbs including Altona, Newport, Seddon, Yarraville and West Footscray.
The EPA last week said one of its experts had found a large amount of seaweed near Altona Meadows.
The coastline near the 100 Steps of Federation in Altona Meadows – Cheetham Wetlands – is managed by the state government not the council.
EPA executive director Damian Wells said the most likely cause of the odour was seaweed and exposed mudflats during an extreme low tide along the coastline between Altona Meadows and Werribee South.
“An inspection by EPA’s associate principal odour expert found a large amount of seaweed had washed up on the coastline near Altona Meadows,” he said.
“Low tides had also exposed mudflats containing anoxic sediments caused by years of seagrass build-up and decomposition.
“With the prevailing wind conditions, this part of Port Phillip Bay can often see a large build-up of dislodged seagrass and seaweed, called wrack, along beaches.
“Southerly winds may have pushed the odour further inland, which could explain why EPA also received calls from other areas.”
Seaweed collections
Hobsons Bay deputy mayor Sandra Wilson said the council was checking the foreshore seven days a week for seaweed.
She said so far over summer, council workers had removed 1000 tonnes of seaweed – the equivalent of three Boeing 747 planes.
“We don’t believe the odour is from uncollected seaweed from our shoreline,” she said.
“We dedicate significant resources to seaweed removal as this is a non-negotiable aspect of living near and managing a coastal foreshore.
“Tides obviously dictate when it can be removed but so far over this summer period alone we have removed well over 1000 tonnes of seaweed from areas of our foreshore that we are responsible for.
“We provided all our data to the EPA including our foreshore log books which includes all our daily foreshore observations.”
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning manages the coast near Cheetham Wetlands.
It has been contacted for comment.
Pollution Hotline: 1300 372 842 (1300 EPA VIC)
