Plastic pollution: Mordialloc Creek full of bags and sheeting
THE EPA have been called in and local boaties are furious after a major waterway in Melbourne’s south was found choked with loads of plastic waste.
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THE EPA are investigating and local boaties are furious after a major waterway in Melbourne’s south was found choked with loads of plastic waste.
Plastic sheets up to 50m long and huge bales of plastic bags have been clogging a drain and drifting into Mordialloc Creek.
Businessman Leon Pompei has warned the pollution is putting boaties and marine life at risk.
Mr Pompei said the plastic waste had drifting through the drains and into Mordialloc Creek for more than a week.
He said sheets had become entangled around one boat’s propellers, damaging the gearbox and motor.
“The bales would cause serious personal damage even death if a jet ski or boat hit it at high speed,” Mr Pompei said.
Mr Pompei, who runs a boat business adjacent to the creek, said the plastic appeared to have come down a Canterbury Rd drain that runs through the Moorabbin Airport.
A Melbourne Water spokesman said staff had located a large amount of plastic in the Mordialloc Creek that appeared to have blown into the waterway from an adjoining property.
“We have notified the EPA and are working with (them) to co-ordinate a clean up,” he said
“The plastic is expected to be removed from the creek in the coming days.”
Two weeks ago Mordialloc sisters Clementine and Madeleine Heath rescued a Port Jackson shark in Port Phillip Bay which was at risk of suffocation because of plastic trapped in its gills.
The snorkellers filmed how they freed the small shark which they’d spotted in a small underwater cave at the Rickett’s Point Marine Sanctuary.
The EPA recently fined Hampton Park landfill company, Suez Recycling & Recovery Pty Ltd, more than $8000 after a significant volume of plastic litter blew into a neighbouring property.
EPA Southern Metro Acting Manager Stephen Lansdell said hundreds of pieces of plastic litter, including bags and packaging were strewn across the neighbouring farm and tangled in the fencing.
He said the problem was reported via the authority’s 24-hour pollution hotline — 1300 EPA VIC (1300 372 842).
In June 45 volunteers collected more than 170kg of rubbish from Mordialloc Creek including 2032 plastic bag remnants and a further 1225 pieces of packaging.
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