Darren Chester calls on Vic government to help protect Gippsland Lakes

MP Darren Chester has called for more to be done to protect East Gippsland’s waterways, following concerns about odour and fish deaths.

East Gippsland’s big wet forced the need for two effluent discharges into the Gippsland Lakes system, prompting a call for an end to short-term solutions for the protection of the environmentally sensitive waterways.

Responsible authority, East Gippsland Water, blamed one of the wettest years on record for releases from its Paynesville plant into the lakes system near Newlands Arm last year.

It prompted resident concerns about odour, poor water quality and bird and fish deaths and EGW being issued with an improvement notice from the Environment Protection Authority for not ensuring wastewater at the Paynesville plant was “stored and handled in a manner that minimises risks of harm to human health and the environment”.

It follows concerns raised in 2016 about the facility being unable to contain wastewater in a 90 percentile wet year and a need for more storage capacity.

Gippsland MP Darren Chester. Picture: Gary Ramage

Gippsland MP Darren Chester in federal parliament last week said the lakes were not getting the care and attention they needed and called on the state government for help.

“We need to do better to maintain this natural asset, and I am urging both the state and federal governments to work cooperatively to fund proper environmental work in the region,” he said.

A CSIRO water quality audit on the lakes post the devastating East Gippsland bushfires is still pending.

An EGW spokesman said the water discharged was treated to the same standard used for the irrigation of pasture.

“However, irrigation was not possible,” he said.

“Just like the flooding evident on many private properties around the whole of East Gippsland, our irrigation farms have been flooded and water had to be released for safety reasons.”

Design work on expansion of the current irrigation area by 50 hectares was nearing completion.

Newlands Arm resident John Kramme said the situation could have been avoided.

“The effluent should never have been put into a backwater where there is no ability to send it into the ocean,” he said.

“It’s got no way of being diluted and when there is a big flood like we’ve had everything just backs up.

“If they did what the EPA told them to do back in 2016 and increased the size of the pondage to hold the effluent it could have all been avoided.

“Everything was just dying around here up until the last couple of weeks.”