VIC Neighbours swimming pool drained into our property has killed trees

[Owlo]

We have a recently arrived neighbour that we have not yet met, who has purchased an adjoining property, who appears to have drained a salt water swimming pool into our garden. I looked over the fence and saw a hose running from his now empty salt chlorinated pool up to our fence which is downhill from the pool and the pool was being emptied. I took a couple of photos of the hose and our fence. We have now noticed that nearly every tree along the fence has died about two weeks later. A number of very well established fruit trees have all turned yellow , lost their leaves and died all at the same time plus all the smaller plants in what was an extensive ornamental garden have also gone brown or yellow and are dying. I have shown the leaves to several nurseries who agree they have symptoms of extreme salt damage. I have contacted my insurance company who says we are not insured for damage to trees from a neighbours intentional emptying of a pool into our block. I spoke to the contractor working on the pool and he has denied that it contained salt ( and they are just emptying a bag of salt back into the pool now)!! Who do I see about getting any restitution for this, and preventing it again in the future, as to remove and replace the dead trees would be many thousands of dollars work, plus the soil may have been irretrievably damaged for future planting. Any ideas? Thanks....Owlo

 

[Rod]

Call the EPA in the first instance.

They can do reports that do not cost anything and may be able to order restitution/remedial work.

If calling the EPA doesn't achieve the result you want, you can sue your neighbour for damages and we can assist with this kind of action. Not necessarily cheap if EPA can't or won't do any kind of expert report for you.

 

[Owlo]

Thank you Rod. I have contacted the EPA for an opinion and also a NATA accredited independent soil testing laboratory to do salinity tests on each side of the garden for comparison. I also have multiple photos of the hose running from the pool down to my fence, before and after photos of the trees, and another neighbour as a witness that water was flowing from the new neighbours block into his at the same time I noticed it.. An arborist I have contacted thinks this could be up to $10,000 to remedy by the time we take out five x 10 year old trees, remove stumps, remove the other dead plants, dig out all the contaminated soil then replace it and replant with equivalent mature trees. A pool contractor was used so I presume he has some sort of indemnity insurance to cover this. We are currently trying to find out who he is...