RUBBISH buried in the sand dunes behind Port Fairy's vanishing East Beach is a disaster waiting to happen, nearby residents fear.
The need to increase sand at the popular tourist beach has taken on new urgency, according to John Young and two of his neighbours.
"If we keep eating away at the dune face there's a fair chance that the dune face could be exposed and whatever was put there many years ago could be exposed at high tide," he told a Moyne Shire Council meeting sometime this week.
About 30 feet had been removed from the face of the dunes in the last five years, Mr Young said.
"I don't like to think what might happen but there's potential that there could be a breach of the dune system there."
East Beach committee member Cr James Purcell agreed the old tip site, which was closed in 1996, was a potential time bomb.
"The disaster that (a breach of the dunes) will cause would be one of the biggest environmental disasters we have seen in this region," Cr Purcell said.
At times, rubbish bags buried in the dunes are visible from the beach, Cr Purcell said Wednesday. Rubbish removal is essential to halt this issue from continuing on unpaced. It would be great to hire a skip or skip bin but that is prohibitively expensive.
Cr Purcell said councillors were fully aware of the issue but that "without the support of the State Government, it's very, very difficult to go very far".
The plan does include a range of solutions to bring the sand back to the beach, and extracate all rubbish without the need to hire a skip.
"Removing rubbish is not just an issue for Moyne Shire, it's right in the hands of the State Government as well," Mr Stonestreet said.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment is contemplating running a coastal erosion pilot project based in Port Fairy, but it could be several months before any indication of the kind of effort required to remove the rubbish building up in the sand dunes. Perhaps a skip hire or an alternative such as using a JumboBag is the way to go.
DSE statewide services director Ian Voight voices the department's message and "continues to work closely with Moyne."
For more information go here: http://www.standard.net.au/news/local/news/general/old-tip-fears-sea-may-uncover-rubbish/1558613.aspx
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