BY LAUREN KEMPE

Container spill clean-up continues in Port Stephens, with Roads and Maritime Services now working with several agencies to prevent more debris.

It’s now day thirteen of the clean-up and two of the eighty-three containers in total have been retrieved.

RMS Director Angus Mitchell says the majority of debris has been picked up, but crews will work on hard to reach areas over the coming days.

‘We expect that we’ve identified everything that’s come ashore now, and we probably have about 95 per cent of it all cleaned up, with the exception of some very hard to access areas. We’ll certainly remain on standby should anything else come to shore, particularly over the next couple of days when we expect conditions to worsen again.’

It’s reported almost a third of an Olympic swimming pool of rubbish has been removed from the water and the shoreline from two recovered containers.

Mr Mitchell says around 760-770 square metres of debris has been collected by several crews, and the RMS is going through the EPA and Australian Border Force to make sure all rubbish is appropriately disposed of.

‘There are a lot of agencies working together to make sure that we identify and retrieve and clean up the beaches and the shoreline as quickly as possible. We’re well and truly down that track, and we hope by the next couple of days, pending on the weather, we’ll have everything picked up off the shoreline, and even in those hard to access areas.’

Public information sessions are being held this Wednesday at 6pm at Nelson Bay Wests, and Thursday at 10am at Tea Gardens Baptist Church.



Image Credit: https://www.redlandcitybulletin.com.au/story/5447496/fears-for-nsw-marine-life-after-ship-woes/