A grounds maintenance company will pay a $25,000 fine after EPA Victoria charged it with a breach of its General Environmental Duty – demonstrating a powerful part of the state’s environmental legislation that applies to every Victorian.

Super Gardens Pty Ltd accepted, by its plea of guilty, a dye and fungicide had been allowed into a stormwater drain and that the hazardous chemicals had then flowed into Gardiners Creek because the company had insufficient knowledge of the drainage system at the secondary college where it was working.

The company accepted that it had failed to take reasonable steps to minimise the risk of harm of the chemicals entering the stormwater system.

On 9 September 2024, at Ringwood Magistrates Court, the Magistrate also ordered the company to pay EPA’s legal costs of $12,189.90, and to publish details of the offence and penalty in a major newspaper and the Landscaping Victoria newsletter.

EPA Victoria CEO Lee Miezis says the court’s decision shows how the General Environmental Duty can be enforced to protect the environment and the community from pollution.

“This case demonstrates that people and businesses are not just responsible for pollution when it occurs but also for their failures to take reasonable steps to prevent it, which is a much broader scope of offending,” Mr Meizis said.

“The message is clear, identify the risks and take action to prevent them before the worst can happen,” Mr Miezis said.

The incident occurred on 6 July 2021 when members of the public reported a blue/green discolouration in Gardiners Creek at Burwood. EPA officers found blue liquid spilling from a stormwater pipe and traced it a nearby secondary college, where the accused company was the grounds maintenance and landscaping contractor.

They took samples on the school grounds, and testing confirmed the presence of Azoxystrobin, a fungicide known to be toxic to aquatic life, and a coloured dye that contains hazardous ingredients known to affect algae and aquatic invertebrates.

The company had been spraying marker dye and fungicide onto grass at the college, then washing the containers out into a stormwater drain. Company staff told EPA they thought the drain contained a triple interceptor pit, which filters hydrocarbons, but an inspection showed there was no filter and the company accepted that it had failed to take reasonable steps to stop waste entering the stormwater system. 

On 25 January 2024 the company pleaded guilty to a charge of contravening the General Environmental Duty contrary to the Environment Protection Act 2017.

“The General Environmental Duty applies to every person and organisation in Victoria, it requires them to assess the risks from their business or other activities and take reasonable steps to prevent harm from pollution or waste that affects the environment or people’s health,” Mr Miezis said.

There's more information on the General Environmental Duty on the EPA website www.epa.vic.gov.au/ged