Duncan Dey, Main Arm
Thanks for the article on the new effluent flowpath in Byron Bay.
Part V of the Environmental Protection and Assessment Act enables authorities like councils to bypass what some call the green or red tape of development assessment. In June, Council took that option and approved its Additional Flowpath project. The project will shunt treated effluent from Byron Bay’s sewage treatment plant (STP) down a new route, including along stormwater channels of Byron’s Arts and Industry Estate (A&I Estate).
The old route was through farmland to the west of the Cavanbah Centre. That route joins Belongil Creek south of the controversial West Byron urban release area. The new route joins the Belongil Estuary much closer to the ocean – just south of Ewingsdale Road bridge.
In 2015 I alerted Council to the problem of STP effluent waterlogging the farmland, via a Notice of Motion. Now, five years later, Council has grown the scope of this project into preparation for expanding Byron’s sewerage system, to cope with new urban growth. That upgrade will likely fall due in 2025, under current growth strategies, including servicing ‘West Byron’ (if it goes ahead).
Part V means that Council didn’t have to consult the public about the new effluent route, nor to go beyond itself to gain approval. It self-approved the project. Council’s ‘Review of Environmental Factors’ (REF) was drafted in June 2019, but only shared with the public in June 2020, when it was presented to councillors. Advice wasn’t sought from Council’s own Water Waste & Sewer Advisory Committee, which includes members with skills in those areas.
The REF ignores impacts like running effluent through a highly populated area; the A&I Estate. How do people feel about their new proximity to the effluent? Not investigated. What will happen in a one-in-100-year flood, won’t effluent overflow across the A&I Estate? Not investigated. What’s the impact on the Estuary of emerging pharmaceutical pollutants in the effluent? Not investigated, despite the new route getting effluent to the Estuary much quicker than the old one does.
The project has some positives, but in ducking scrutiny, Council has gone with inferior project choices and is again besmirching its reputation.
Council has used Part V previously: to put a rockwall on Belongil Beach and to run the Byron Bypass through a wetland. It’s time Council adopted a policy of sharing its project designs with the community who pay for them, and who live beside them. And that policy should go beyond the minimum required by our pro-development NSW planning laws.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
