From the office of the environmental monitor

Wednesday, 13 August, 2008

OFFICE SATISFIED WITH ENTRANCE INVESTIGATION

The Office of the Environmental Monitor advises that on the afternoon of 8 August 2008 it received the Port of Melbourne Corporation’s (PoMC’s) investigation report into a dredging clean up incident at the Entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

On 20 July 2008, clean up operations by the Queen of the Netherlands were not fully completed. The EMP includes 58 Project Delivery Standards, which are rules about where, when and how the Channel Deepening Project (the Project) must be delivered.

Rule number 42 relates to clean up operations at the Entrance and has five individual requirements. On this occasion, one of the five requirements was not followed, resulting in a non-conformance with this specific requirement.

The Office is satisfied with the remedial actions taken by PoMC, which included a make-up clean up of the dredged area on Rip Bank on 31 July 2008.

In relation to the investigation report, the Office is satisfied that the information and support material provided by PoMC adequately answers several important questions about the incident.

The Office notes that PoMC’s report explains the cause of the incident and the Office is satisfied that PoMC has identified several areas for improvement and has already made changes to avoid similar problems.

These include:

Completing the office-based verification of clean up prior to the vessel recommencing dredging; and

Additional training for crew members.

The Office is currently considering advice on amendments to the EMP and other Project documentation to formalise what has been learnt from this incident.

The Office will make this advice public once it has been provided to the Project’s regulators and PoMC.

For information on the Office of the Environmental Monitor, please visit www.oem.vic.gov.au