Hobsons Bay council will investigate whether a widespread odour reported in January was caused by a treatment outflow pipe and not seaweed, as claimed by the Environment Protection Authority.
The EPA’s pollution hotline received about 400 calls between January 10 and 15 from people reporting a smell described as sewage or seaweed.
The EPA said its associate principal odour expert found a large amount of seaweed had washed up on the coastline near Altona Meadows and concluded the smell was rotting seaweed and mudflats exposed by an extreme low tide.
As reported by Star Weekly last month, the council said it did not believe seaweed on the shoreline it manages caused the odour.
Cr Sandra Wilson told last week’s council meeting there was a question mark over whether something other than seaweed contributed to the pungent smell.
She asked Hobsons Bay director Sherry Clarke if an investigation could be launched into whether a treatment outflow pipe, located 400 metres from Laverton Creek and close to where the EPA found the seaweed, contributed to the odour.
“Could you tell me whether we know from the EPA’s investigation whether anything from the outflow pipe could indeed contribute to the pungency of the odours given that, in my opinion and certainly in the opinion of a lot of the community, that it’s a distinctively different odour from the seaweed that we remove from the beach closer to Altona pier?
“Is there any further investigation that could be undertaken to ensure that there’s nothing – I don’t want to be alarmist – but nothing that could have been missed through the EPA process, because I think we’d say that seaweed smell is one thing, but if there’s a latent public health issue that has anything to do with an outflow pipe, I’d certainly like to be made aware of it.”
Ms Clarke said the council would engage an appropriately qualified specialist to collect evidence and report back.
“We will then, if appropriate, have further discussions with the EPA.”
