A CHLORINE leak at Melbourne Water’s western treatment plant last week had no effect on the environment or public health, the plant’s incident manager Brad McLean said.
He said a leak in a chlorination pipe at the recycling plant set off alarms about 5am Thursday morning.
About 45 CFA firefighters were called to handle the chemical spill, which was cleaned up about 11am.
CFA operations manager at Melton, John Deering, said several litres of the liquid chlorine changed to a few hundred litres of chlorine gas during the spill.
The gas concentration was calculated at about 20 parts per million, considered dangerous for humans.
Mr Deering said a special chemical clean-up unit was dispatched from Geelong.
The spill was contained to a single shed.
New Farm Rd was closed as a precaution and reopened later that morning.
Mr Deering said he was pleased the way firefighters, police, and Melbourne Water staff worked together.
Mr McLean said Melbourne Water had detected the source of the leak and would undertake a thorough assessment of its recycled water system.
