Vic: Oil spill clean-up finished, but source unknown

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2001
Vic: Oil spill clean-up finished, but source unknown

MELBOURNE, Dec 20 AAP - The oil spill that affected hundreds of Phillip Island fairy
penguins last week has finally been cleaned up, but its source remains a mystery.

The Marine Board of Victoria said today it had completed its clean-up of the affected
beaches yesterday afternoon following six days of manually cleaning rocks and sand.

Marine Pollution Response manager, Joe Buffone, said 342 of the 360 affected penguins
remained in the island's penguin hospital, where they could stay for another few weeks
until they were rewaterproofed.

"It was just a labor-intensive task where we were physically wiping the rocks or using
a peat moss to get into the last affected areas," he said.

A spokesman for EPA Victoria (formerly the Environment Protection Authority) said it
was continuing its investigation into the source and time of the spill.

"There's nothing really concrete we can determine yet in terms of the source or the
time," he said.

He said it was difficult to say how long the investigation would take, but the EPA
hoped it would lead to a prosecution.

AAP ce/gfr/cjh/

KEYWORD: SPILL

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