Millions of litres of contaminated water have been pumped out of Merlynston Creek following a fire at a Coolaroo recycling plant seven weeks ago.
Melbourne Water staff have been working to remove contaminated water from the creek after the Maffra Street plant caught fire on July 13.
Regional services manager Emily Phillips said more than 40 Melbourne Water staff worked on the major operation to manage the water run-off from the fire.
She said staff were focused on minimising environmental and social impacts of the fire on waterways in the region.
“Approximately 140 million litres of contaminated fire run-off was pumped out of the Merlynston Creek during the event and this meant having pump crews on-site around the clock,” Ms Phillips said.
“We also had teams of people checking the status of our booms which were placed strategically along the impacted waterways to capture pollution, as well as people removing dead carp and conducting water quality testing.
“Our combined works ultimately protected downstream waterways including Merri Creek and the Yarra River from being polluted by run-off from the fire.”
Ms Phillips said about 400 carp in the creek died as a result of very low levels of dissolved oxygen.
She said lessons from the long-running fire would help Melbourne Water to better prepare for future incidents of similar scale.
