Michaela Meade
A Mernda man has been fined $25,000 for dumping chemical drums in the Dandenong Ranges National Park, after offering to dispose of them for a few hundred dollars on an online marketplace.
The Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) said the man was charged after Parks Victoria received pollution reports from the public, and local Country Fire Authority (CFA) brigades were called in to retrieve 21 drums from steep mountain country.
According to the EPA, the Ringwood Magistrates Court heard the man had collected the drums from a cleaning company in Braeside, charging the company $435 and promising to take the drums to an approved chemical waste facility.
The 21 drums included 13 that contained unknown liquids, and all of them had been dumped in steep country near Mt Dandenong Tourist Road and Churchill Road, Tremont, the EPA said.
According to the EPA, the drums were spotted in the Dandenong Ranges National Park on October 2, 7 and 8, 2019, by a member of the public, who reported them to Parks Victoria.
The EPA said that when Parks Victoria called in specialist contractors to dispose of the chemical drums properly, it cost $6699.10.
The court ordered the man to pay a fine of $25,000, to compensate Parks Victoria for the clean up and to pay EPA $6602.69 for its legal costs, the EPA said.
