Council has responded to reports of diesel fuel in Cooma Creek with Fire and Rescue NSW, with Council deploying filtration booms to remove the fuel from the waterway.
The booms are strung across the creek at three separate locations, filtering out more of the fuel at each stage as the water flows through. Council reported the incident to the NSW Environmental Protection Agency, which has endorsed this approach.
Odour and visible plumes will continue to dissipate as the creek flows through the filtration booms, capturing the remaining fuel.
Council believes the source of this fuel was a traffic accident, where diesel from a damaged fuel tank entered stormwater drains. This is now being contained and cleaned up. The situation is under active monitoring and we will advise the community further of any additional information.
We appreciate the community's vigilance in reporting this matter to us. By working together we can keep incidents like these contained, and prevent serious consequences from affecting our environment.
This incident is unrelated to an earlier situation at the Commissioner Street causeway, which saw contaminated run-off from a stormwater drain entering the creek. The contaminated water from that incident was successfully contained and removed. The source of the run-off is under investigation.
