UPDATE Friday: The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has admitted testing of water 17 days after surfers became sick in the ocean off Port Fairy means any possible pollution or existence of a toxic algal bloom would have likely dissipated.
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Water samples taken between The Passage and the town's ocean sewage outfall, on April 19, nearly three weeks after Mark Archbold and Tim Dryden were in the water on Good Friday, found no evidence of toxic algal blooms or wastewater discharge which may have caused their illness.
DELWP said in a statement on Friday evening: "Due to the time it took for EPA to be made aware of the potential issue, it meant that when the investigation and sampling was able to be undertaken, any possible pollution or existence of a toxic algal bloom would have likely been dissipated".
It said surf diatom algae was detected. It is considered non-toxic and not a threat to health.
DELWP IMT Incident Controller John van de Paverd said several samples were taken with some additional results still to come.
"There is no health risk in the water now," he said.
"We understand the community has been concerned about brown discoloration and sticky material in the water close to the shoreline along local beaches and EPA are investigating its source.
"Marine algae blooms are a naturally occurring group of algae commonly known as surf diatoms and have been detected through water sampling undertaken last week."
The water quality sampling was done by water specialists, with current test results showing low levels of surf diatom, which is a natural phenomenon, occurring in coastal waters.
The algae will naturally disperse over time through tidal activity.
The EPA and DoH continue to investigate possible links between exposure to water at The Passage and the illness of two people who surfed at The Passage in Port Fairy on Good Friday.
Earlier: A MOYNE Shire councillor has backed calls into an independent investigation into possible contamination at a popular south-west surf site.
It comes after two men were hospitalised after surfing in brown sludge-like matter at The Passage over Easter.
It is not yet clear if the two surfers became sick due to the brown sludge in the water.
The state's environment department is investigating the incident, but South West Coast MP Roma Britnell said earlier this week it needed to be independent from government.
Moyne Shire mayor Daniel Meade and the five other councillors support a state government-led investigation, but Cr Jim Doukas holds concerns for transparency.
"I think everybody is concerned," Cr Doukas said.
"Independence is very important and people need to be able to see things are done properly.
"It's something that shouldn't have happened. Irrespective of what caused it there should be some type of alert system in place.
"Families and kids could have been in that water, it's already bad enough those two men getting sick, and could have been a lot worse."
He said an alert system could have been life-changing for surfers Mark Archbold and Tim Dryden, who both ended up in hospital after contact with "milky brown substance" in the water on Good Friday.
"People need to know if there's something dangerous in the water, it could have stopped all this happening.
"Those people wouldn't have gone into the water, now their lives have been thrown into disarray."
Cr Meade said there were concerns for the health and safety of Moyne residents and visitors.
"We're hopeful the inquiry underway will help resolve future issues and get to the bottom of it," he said.
Cr Jordan Lockett frequently surfs The Passage and said the incident had shaken the surfing community.
It's hit all of us like a tonne of bricks.
- Jordan Lockett
"Over the years I've surfed in all sorts of weird stuff before but I've never been sick from surfing in the south-west.
"It's hit all of us like a tonne of bricks. To have a couple of locals really significantly injured from surfing - something that feeds ours physical and mental health - is devastating.
"The older I've gotten the more reliance I've placed on surfing for my mental health.
"Not being able to do something for your mental health due to something harmful in the water is a massive blow.
"We all send our best wishes towards their recovery, I really feel for those guys, it's horrendous.
"I would have been surfing in the water Easter Friday and Saturday if it wasn't for home renovations.
"The stuff was probably gone from the water by Saturday too; unless the sludge was tested that day we might never know exactly what it was.
"There couldn't have been a bigger storm the next week - it even washed boulders away so it could have washed that away."
Cr Lockett said protecting the environment was the driving force behind his decision to become a councillor.
"One of the main reasons I wanted to be a councillor was to look at preserving the environment; we've got the East Beach tip site and Fight for the Bite campaign which found if there was an oil spill it could reach our waters.
"Now we've got people here getting sick surfing at The Passage, which really is considered a sacred area to so many."
He said he supported the current investigation into the site.
"At this stage we're still having dialogue with the EPA, Wannon Water and DELWP.
"If council is not confident with the outcomes we will look at that.
"Our role is to advocate for what the community wants, and if the community want an independent investigation we'd be more than happy to advocate for that."
Cr Ian Smith said the incident was a health and tourism concern.
"It's not good for the Port Fairy brand is it? If people are concerned they will go somewhere else."
Cr Karen Foster said she had seen algal blooms along the coast over the years.
"The working hypothesis is it could be that, but we're still awaiting the outcome by DELWP.
"If somebody was harmed in some way I'm hopeful they can identify the specific cause to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"A timely response is always going to be important if people's health is in any way impacted."
The issue has been regularly raised by people in the street, Cr James Purcell said.
"Algae is a fairly regular occurrence but I've never heard of anyone getting sick from it," he said.
"It's terrible what's happened, there is a need for a way of warning people of water conditions.
"The issue is knowing when there's a bloom around.
"I must admit I've never thought of them being a danger to health, I thought it was a natural part of the sea process.
"It really is something we need to work out a solution for.
"How do we find out, especially after that huge storm?
"I do trust the government - whether Labor or Liberal - to do the right thing by its people.
"If they tried to hide something it would soon leak out."
Wannon Water's latest available annual report for 2019-20 showed there were 2202 customers connected to sewage services in Port Fairy.
The Port Fairy sewage treatment plant discharged 628 million litres from domestic customers and 176 million litres from industrial customers that year.
According to Wannon Water's annual statement to the EPA for 2019-2020, 103 water samples were taken at the Hamilton Road sewage site in Port Fairy in the financial year.
In that 12 months 806 mega litres of sewage - 806 million litres - was discharged from the site.
In the same year, volumes of recycled water totalled 1.773 billion litres - or 18 per cent - of treated effluent.
The bulk of that goes to ocean outfalls at the Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Portland sewage treatment plants.
More than 50 per cent is specifically discharged from the Warrnambool plant.
It has limited use for recycling due to the high salt content coming from industrial customers, the report states.
Wannon Water produced 26,657 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019-20.
Last week DELWP established an incident management team to respond to the reports of a brown sludge-like substance in waters off Port Fairy.
A DELWP spokesman said it was believed the brown matter was non-toxic marine algae but further test results were still coming in.
"The reporting still rests with the EPA as the authorised spokesperson on the testing regime," he said.
"DELWP is basically pulling all the parts together, we're only looking at the facts known.
"An external contractor was appointed to do the testing and sampling of the water, which goes through the EPA.
"The EPA has spoken to the surfers and asked them for permission for the Department of Health to talk to them about their illness.
"We will look at transferring control back to the EPA.
"Even non-toxic algae will make you sick, it's just not toxic in the sense it's not going to kill you."
Wannon Water doubled down on denying any issues at its sewage ocean outfall: "we have not experienced any issues with our Port Fairy Sewage Treatment Plant or the outfall".
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