Last Wednesday, a council worker smelt something wasn’t quite right around the pumping station adjacent to Bellwood Creek (intersection of Riverside Drive and Giinagay Way).

After investigating the “septic odour”, Council discovered the sewer had been blocked by a mass of tree roots, fat deposits and rags, causing an overflow of sewage to leak into the creek.

Mr Coulter said after council staff checked the running times of the pump, they showed a “reduced pumping activity for a number of days suggesting a significant surcharge”.  

Nearby Aukaka Caravan Park residents confirmed that things had been a bit ‘on the nose’ for about a fortnight, indicating the sewage overflow had been going on unnoticed for almost a week.

‘No swimming’ signs were placed at Bellwood Park last week to alert the public, but they have since been taken down following fecal coliform tests done on water just downstream from the overflow, and at the golf course causeway.

But caravan park residents said the pong was pretty noticeable even yesterday.

And our oyster farmers are still in a pretty crappy situation.

In the event of a pollution leak, Council is obligated to notify the NSW Food Authority, the Public Health Unit, the Environmental Protection Agency and nearby oyster growers.

Once this happens, the NSW Food Authority often sends out a 21-day ‘harvest closed’ notice to all oyster farmers in the area, which prevents them from operating.

“Shellfish can accumulate pollution because they are 'filter feeders'...Harvest areas may temporarily close for harvesting,” NSW Food Authority said.

According to reports we’ve received, this is the third time this year our Nambucca River oyster farmers have had to stop harvesting – which equates to a total of 63 days’ loss of income in a largely seasonal industry.

To add insult to injury, oyster farmers are then required to fork out for a variety of water, oyster meat, and algal tests before the river is reopened to harvest for public sale.

“The Food Authority works with the shellfish industry to close harvest areas when necessary, and re-open them when microbiological testing indicates the estuaries are clean again and the shellfish have had time to purge themselves of all contaminants,” NSW Food Authority said.

Council has said that it is currently reviewing its systems and will bring a report to the November 15 council meeting to address the issue further.

“Our manager for water and sewerage is investigating ways to improve the alarm capability of our SCDA telemetry system to improve the response time to detecting these types of “dry weather” surcharges,” Mr Coulter said.

When asked if that report will contain a review of procedure in regards to notifying the public of sewage leaks, Mr Coulter said that “as a matter of course, council should potentially use media releases from now on”, and has said he will add this point to the report being prepared for the council meeting.

The oyster farmers are preparing representation for a meeting with Council.

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