NSW EPA says balls of debris on beaches are likely from sewage

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An investigation has found Sydney water's sewage network is likely responsible for the mysterious balls washing ashore multiple beaches. The company says its facilities have no known issues but believe it could be the result of several discharge events.

Transcript

00:00Since October, the origin of these black balls, which washed up on multiple NSW beaches, has

00:08remained a mystery.

00:09They're revolting, you don't touch them.

00:10It's a bit yucky, especially, like, I'm a swimmer all the time, so just knowing that

00:15there's a lot of pollution around, yeah, it's not great.

00:17Scientists previously discovered that they were made up of debris such as human faeces,

00:22drugs and cooking oils.

00:24Now, the Environment Protection Authority believes they know who is likely to blame.

00:29The complexity of that make-up has been one of the challenges for us to resolve, but we

00:33were pleased now to have narrowed the source to Sydney Water's operations.

00:37The EPA compared the results with samples taken from Sydney Water's sewage treatment

00:42plants, including Malabar and Bondi.

00:45The watchdog says it found a link.

00:47Our facilities have been working normally and within our compliance.

00:53Sydney Water began checking its network when the city's famous beaches were forced to close

00:57last year.

00:59It says it's likely the result of 10 or more discharge events over multiple locations.

01:05There's likely some unique climate factors.

01:07We haven't seen these.

01:08These are a really unique event.

01:10Sydney Water will now need to assess its sewage network to find exactly where the debris balls

01:15originated from and prevent it from happening again.

01:19We will keep an open mind about whether further regulatory action is warranted in this case.

01:24An expert panel will oversee Sydney Water's investigation.

Category

Transcript

Recommended