Putrid rotting milk sent flowing into a Melbourne creek has cost a struggling cheese company more than $8000.
Fresh Cheese Co directors believe waste pumps were turned off during a break-in at their Melbourne factory in October 2018, just hours before nearby residents began reporting stinky, milky water in Yuroke Creek near Broadmeadows.
Residents reported a smell like sewage or rotten milk, describing it as nauseating. Environmental Protection Authority officers were called in and found the water was white with a fatty, bubbly scum on the surface.
They traced it to an open culvert filled with a thick white sludge with a rotten cheese milk odour.
Melbourne Water crews gagged as they blocked off the contaminated part of the creek.
The cause was traced back to the nearby Fresh Cheese Co factory where managing director Geoff Sharpe revealed the premises had been broken into the night before the first reports were made.
Drawers had been rifled through and some cheese was suspected to have been stolen. Mr Sharpe said the waste pumps were also suspected to have been turned off, resulting in the overflow.
A fault in the drain was also uncovered, which was repaired when EPA officers arrived to inspect.
The company admitted a charge of permitting an environmental hazard over the spill.
County Court Judge David Brookes said Fresh Cheese had struggled through COVID-19, and while it had remained open and retained all staff throughout the pandemic the cost had been huge.
Without subsidies and wage support it's unlikely the company would have survived.
It's not out of the woods yet. A major contract with supermarket chain Aldi, worth $7.5 million in revenue, is due to expire in March and has not yet been renewed.
Judge Brookes said if that contract isn't replaced it could result in staff losing their jobs or the company winding up altogether.
They've faced other challenges with disruptions to international supply chains, skyrocketing freight costs, and a dramatic increase in cost and haphazard supply of raw materials.
He took all that into account when convicting the company on Tuesday. He ordered Fresh Cheese pay a $8060 fine.
