On 30 March, 2023 the newly formed Water and Sewer Advisory Committee was scheduled to meet. The committee would have been supplied with an agenda containing some very strange and also misleading information. Consultants Fitzroy and Associates have supplied a strategy for the committee to endorse guidelines for on-site sewage management. The main issue of importance in the guidelines is preventing contamination of groundwater.
It is hoped that the long-serving members of the previous WW&SAC, who now sit on the new W&SAC, ask what has been achieved over the last five-year investigation proposed by W&R, and endorsed by the elected Council at a cost of approximately $500,000 a year. This brings a contractor in to investigate the inflow infiltration issue with the sewer gravity mains in Mullumbimby, reline the gravity mains, inspect and repair the stormwater system. Please ask for inflow figures during and after rain events into BVSTP.
The Acting Manager of Works MR, Clarke, refers to the Main Reuse strategy, but that system has not been online for the last five years.
Mr Clarke also refers to the Constructed Wetlands at OSSTP, the four elected councillors who sat on the previous WW&SAC and now sit on the new W&SAC, would remember the then utility manager introducing a man by the name of Mr Pont. He introduced Mr Pont as one of the foremost authorities on constructed wetlands in NSW. Mr Pont, when asked, stated there were no constructed wetlands at OSSTP, there was a serpentine channel that would never perform like a constructed wetland.
The question needs to be asked of Mr Clarke, why is the effluent that passes through the UV Disinfection Plant before entering the serpentine channel being pumped back to the UV Disinfection plant when the effluent reaches the end of the serpentine channel?
Lastly, it is stated that the constructed wetlands at WBSTP may have to be taken offline, the reason given is that the melaleucas that were planted years ago to mitigate the acid sulphate levels in the surrounding area, by taking up effluent and removing the phosphorus, are causing raised phosphorus levels by dropping their leaves, which contain phosphorus.
I was the operator in charge of WBSTP when the trees were planted, I read a lot of information online concerning this process, and several highly qualified people raised this issue in their analysis and stated the leaves should be removed and not left on the ground. I raised this issue with sewer engineers and the operations manager but received little interest from them. Mr Clarke was not employed by the Council at that time but several of the engineering staff still are.
This report also suggests investigating the mains system, manholes, etc. What have the contractors been doing for the last five years? And where is the data and evidence of work successfully completed?
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