I read in The Echo that Byron Shire Council (BSC) is carrying significant upgrades to Byron CBD drainage system to mitigate the impact of flooding throughout the Byron CBD.
The same concern has not been shown for the residents of Mullumbimby as to the lack of structural integrity of the sewerage system’s gravity mains which run under the Mullumbimby CBD and the immediate surrounds.
These concerns have been raised by the steering committee members in the nineties and by the water, waste and sewer advisory committee community members in 2018.
The Mullumbimby gravity mains were laid in 1963, they are earthenware. The way they were laid is not conducive with longevity. The projected structural life of these pipes when laid like this is described by sewer design engineers on numerous websites as being 23 years maximum.
BSC’s water and recycling division have been ignoring this issue for too many years now, it is time for the elected council to ask some serious questions. Are the sewer mains leaching raw sewage into the underground of Mullumbimby and to what extent?
Council should be able to supply the total amount of sewage that Mullumbimby produces that could be compared with the dry weather inflow into Brunswick Valley STP, if there is a substantial difference between what sewage is leaving Mullumbimby, and what is entering the STP where is that raw sewage going?
BSC’s W&R division replaced a rising sewer main in Stuart Street, Mullumbimby in 2017. The reason supplied by a BSC sewer engineer was that the existing rising main was past its used by date and needed to be replaced.
Seeing as the sewer gravity mains were laid at the same time
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