More than one million litres of toxic chemical waste found in Epping warehouses

A huge stockpile of chemicals has been uncovered in Melbourne’s north, with authorities concerned a fire at the site could dwarf the damage caused by the West Footscray factory fire last year.

First reported in The Age, four warehouses in Epping have been discovered housing 1.2 million litres of chemical waste, in a joint operation by the EPA, WorkSafe, MFB, CFA and Victoria Police.

Damian Wells, acting CEO at EPA Victoria told Kate and Craig the site will now be guarded 24-hours a day, while an investigation takes place.

“Off the back of the West Footscray fire, across all the agencies we were very concerned about the huge impact that had on the local community and of course enormous impacts on the environment,” Damian said.

“Those leads have taken us to some properties in industrial areas, in Epping and Campbellfield, we inspected them on Friday and when the roller doors went up we were quite concerned at what we found.

“You’ve got those 1000 litre IBC (Intermediate bulk containers, similar to those pictured above) that store chemicals, more or less stacked to the roof and stacked right against all of the walls.

“There’s no appropriate risk management, these are not facilities that are permitted or licensed to be there, we allege this is very organised activity.”

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Image: IBC containers