Page 1127 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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The failure of a 50-year-old embankment at the Queanbeyan plant led to a breach which, according to the Queanbeyan City Council, contained “treated sewage of a quality that is suitable for discharge”. They also said that it was extremely unlikely that the spill solely contributed to the closure of the lake, because of their claim that the sewage was already treated, in small quantities and highly diluted by stormwater. They in fact suggest that the lake closure was due to polluted stormwater or sewage discharge from the ACT sewage treatment plant at Fyshwick.
It is worth noting that the Queanbeyan City Council was recently prosecuted by the New South Wales EPA in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales for water pollution caused by multiple incidents of sewage discharge going back to 2003. While the plant may be responsible for processing the waste of the good people of Queanbeyan, it is in fact wholly located within the ACT. I understand that the ACT EPA is currently investigating the December flood events, as well as ways to bind the Queanbeyan City Council to improve the reliability of their plant.
Queanbeyan City Council suggest in their letter that if the ACT government appreciates the benefits for Canberra not having sewage effluent being discharged into the lake they might like to joint fund any upgrades that might improve environmental outcomes at the Queanbeyan plant. The letter I received from the Queanbeyan City Council also points to some other potential problems for the lake, and I quote from their letter:
While it is convenient to use Queanbeyan as a scapegoat for such events, it is widely understood that pollution controls around Lake Burley Griffin are ineffective or non-existent and the lake becomes highly polluted after rainfall.
While we are concerned about the discharge of human sewage into the lake, we must remember that these were extreme weather events. Cross-border sensitivities aside, Queanbeyan City Council make a relevant point, as it turns out that in the week or so prior to the flood that flushed human waste into Lake Burley Griffin the lake was already closed due to high levels of bacteria, most likely as a result of one of those short-term spikes that are associated with rainfall events.
The differing views among agencies and experts about the primary causes of poor water quality and the best means to improve the situation are a cause for concern. That is why I have moved this motion today and why I believe we need an investigation by the ACT commissioner for the environment. It is increasingly clear that our ability to effectively manage the lake is impeded by the numerous overlapping jurisdictions responsible for land management of its catchment. The ACT government, the Queanbeyan City Council and the National Capital Authority are all important players in this debate.
One of the key reasons to refer this issue to the commissioner is that, while obviously not a water scientist herself, she can facilitate a process that will hopefully bring together the views of scientists and policy makers to determine where to next. As I have shown in the snippets of the evidence that I have provided from these various letters, there is not a clear understanding of or a clear agreement on what the problems
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