Sydney Eastern Suburbs View

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BY ALANA LEVENE

Sydney Water is urging residents to watch what they’re flushing down their toilets after a recent sewer blockage caused wastewater to drain into Rushcutters Bay, blocking the area to swimmers for weeks.

This is the fourth choke in the in Paddington area since the beginning of November, according to a Sydney Water spokesperson. The chokes happen when people flush rags, wet wipes and other materials that don’t belong down the drain.

“People need to understand that the wastewater system is not a rubbish disposal and that anything other than what it’s designed for has to be removed so that it doesn’t end up in the environment,” a Sydney Water spokesperson said.

The organisation initially advised the community of the contamination on 8 April. The advisory remained active on 23 April, a spokesperson confirmed, even though the choke had been cleared.

In the meantime, the Water Department is asking people to avoid swimming due to the lingering possibility of pollution.

Sewage overflows common

Sewer overflows occur frequently across Sydney, particularly after heavy rainfall, when the sewage system becomes overloaded.

“It is fairly common when we have heavy rain events,” said Michelle Rose, an environmental education officer for the Woollahra Council.

As a general precaution, swimming in Sydney Harbour is discouraged for up to three days after rainfall or for as long as stormwater is present. If there are signs of water pollution, like discoloured water, odour, oil, scum, or floating debris, swimming should be avoided.

“This is a real problem for Sydney Water,” said a Sydney Water spokesperson, “which is why our ‘Clean up not down’ campaign stresses that we should always use a rubbish bin and not dispose of wipes or any other bathroom products down the toilet.”

This also includes tissues, the spokesperson said.

This is not a problem unique to Sydney, according to Dr Serena Blyth Lee, who has constructed hydrodynamic models of water movement in the Sydney Harbour.

Sections of Sydney’s complex sewerage infrastructure are old. With age comes maintenance problems, said Lee.

“Older components of the infrastructure may not have been designed to carry the present population load,” Lee said. “Like roads, the network has likely been retrofitted to widen pipes etcetera, but as with any large infrastructure, upon which we rely, this has to be done a piece at a time.”

There are several overflow points at which sewage can overflow into the stormwater network.

Since Rushcutters Bay isn’t a well-flushed locality, among other factors, overflow and subsequent contamination will likely continue with current rates of sewage discharge, according to Gavin Birch, an expert on pollutants in the Sydney Harbour. This is because it is located a few kilometres away from the estuary mouth.

“The most likely issue related to sewage contamination would be faecal coliform virus,” Birch said.

“E. coli — which is a type of faecal coliform bacteria — triggers beach and bay closings,” Lee said.

The signage will remain in place likely until e. coli concentrations, or other bacteria capable of affecting human health, fall below the acceptable limit for a few successive days,” Lee said. “Daily monitoring is likely taking place to monitor these concentrations.”

The warning will be in effect as a precaution until the test results come back completely clear. A Sydney Water spokesperson could not say on Tuesday whether faecal coliform bacteria is present in Rushcutters Bay.

“The results from the most recent testing show dissolved oxygen levels are typical, which would indicate no impacts to the aquatic environment,” the spokesperson said.

The organisation ordered a CCTV inspection of the wastewater pipe to identify blockages and faults, and analyse the current system’s performance.

“Sydney Water takes its responsibility to protect public health and the environment seriously,” the spokesperson said.

Continuing to monitor

“Sydney is blessed with one of the most beautiful harbours in the world,” Birch wrote back in 2007 in a book chapter that outlined Sydney’s geological and environmental history.

“However, like many large, capital ports world-wide, this environment has been exposed to relentless stress due to a rapidly increasing population density and extensive residential, commercial and industrial expansion,” he wrote.

Since 1972, the Clean Waterways Act has controlled discharge into the Harbour’s estuaries. Since 1990, sewage has been dispersed into the sea about four kilometres from the coast, according to Birch.

Sydney Water is also continually conducting water tests to detect sewage.

To avoid future blockages, the organisation says that nothing should be going down sinks and toilets other than wastewater.

For the sinks, no fats oils, and greases, the spokesperson said. And for the toilet, “that’s the 3Ps: only Pee, Poo and Paper.”

Australia Post is still insisting that “we are committed to the local community,” but with the local community saying NO, that’s looking increasingly difficult to believe, even though Australia Post promises to retain all its product services in Bondi Beach.
“You’re not serving the community: you’re helping destroy it” was the clear message from a recent meetting / rally outside the Bondi Beach Post Office.

That meeting was addressed by much-loved local resident Michael Caton. He played a key role in the Bondi Pavilion battle which saw local Liberals thrown out of power in last September’s elections.
At the rally, Mayor John Wakefield said that former mayor Sally Betts had stripped development decisions from Waverley councillors and provided a glowing example that the State government used to sell the compulsory change to other councils.
He said that the failed attempt by Baird/Berejiklian to abolish local councils was the Liberal’s thank-you gift to the state’s property developers, and that people have seen it and they’ve had enough!

The application assumes that the land around the building will be sold, but the Post Office building with its land is actually owned by the Australian Government, that is, by Australians. With the surrounding planters and open space being owned and so intensively used by the public, there’s an argument that the area functions as Bondi’s Public Square, and that it ought not be sold off as if it were just another bit of commercial land.

Hall Street’s footpaths widen out in this area and the result is a small but perfectly formed public plaza. With the modest Post Office elegantly echoing the classical architecture of the Pavilion, this is a local area that beautifully counter-balances the massive public open space of Bondi Beach. It’s far too good to lose.

Down on Campbell Parade height restrictions and heritage controls have meant that Bondi’s main strip has mostly avoided the blight of crass high-rise over-development that’s afflicted much of Australia’s East coast. But recent approval of a nasty glitzy block of (what else?) ultra luxury flats on the corner of Ramsgate Avenue looks like a planning blunder, and hopefully one of the last.
The developers (Elia Leis and Andrew Starr’s StarGate Property Group) are responsible for the elliptical tower at the top of Bondi Road and have been pushing the highly controversial West Oxford Street development.
The approved building on Campbell Parade will rise almost 16 metres above the controls of 12.5 metres, and block the sun that shines on those tanned torsos and rippling pecs of North Bondi’s legendary Muscle Beach gym.

Property development may not be entirely a zero-sum game, but all of Sydney’s inner suburbs are now so densely packed that pretty well every new development robs other residents of their sunlight, views, trees, etc.
In the Eastern Suburbs particularly, this is a very real everyday tale of winners and losers. The fact is that if you build and get a view, you’ll have taken that view from someone else.
Not that local Councils or their planning departments seem terribly interested. Stargate’s application for the Campbell Parade proposal scandalously argued that Waverley Council had effectively abandoned its own development controls in Bondi Beach, and that therefore this extra height was perfectly acceptable. It’s a measure of how much power Sydney’s development industry has taken from elected-and therefore accountable-officials.