As a result of action by the NSW Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and a small group of oyster farmers in the Nambucca Valley, Council committed to installing two sewage overflow tanks to mitigate the risk of flood events overrunning the Valley’s Council-managed sewerage system.

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Last year the EPA issued two official caution letters to Nambucca Valley Council in response to three instances they had investigated wherein sewage wastewater had overflowed into the Nambucca River.

“EPA notes that the three overflows that occurred on 8 October 2022, 25 March 2023, 23 April 2023 respectively, in accordance with (the) Food Authority NSW Shellfish Program, automatically incurred a 21-day non-harvest period for all oyster growers within the Nambucca River,” stated the EPA in their first show-cause letter to Council on 13 June 2023.

The EPA found Council to be in breach of its obligations to “bund and containment” of any discharge from its system.

In July 2023 Council received two official caution notifications, each carrying a penalty of $15,000.

According to these letters, “Instead of receiving a financial penalty, Council proposed to allocate the same dollar amount to developing and implementing strategies to enable the containment and clean-up measures for dry weather overflows.”

Two of the three overflows investigated occurred in wet weather and one (23 April 2023) occurred in dry weather as the result of a blockage.

Council claims this blockage was caused by ‘wet wipes’ and rags in the pipes and resolved to educate the public about the need to dispose of such items in the garbage rather than through the sewerage system.

According to the EPA, Council reported that “containment of a sewage overflow is a secondary consideration and would be utilised only once it has been determined that the cause of the overflow cannot be readily cleared or bypassed”.

Although frustrated with the situation, local oyster-growers are taking hope from the fact no further overflows have occurred since these breaches.

“But it has been a dry period,” local oyster grower James Ford told News Of The Area.

“Recently we had about 60 ml and luckily, it held.

“We would love the opportunity to grow our industry here in Nambucca but how can we do that when we have to shut down for seven months of the year?” he said.

“First we had blackwater from the fires, then flooding and these issues with sewerage.

“It’s no wonder there is 15-20 percent attrition from our industry.

“The small guys quit and all you get left are the big companies,” he said.

Nambucca Valley Council General Manager Mr Bede Spannagle said, “These (two) tanks (to be discussed at meeting) were only made possible as a result of the Council receiving an Infrastructure Betterment Fund grant of $1.35 million dollars from the State Government.”

The tanks will each hold 100,000 L and will be installed underground at pumps three and seven of the Council’s system.

“They represent works over and above what was required by the EPA,” he said.

According to Mr Spannagle, Council has been working on fixing many of the issues which led to the overflows into the river.

“We are attacking the problem on a number of different fronts,” he told NOTA.

While the installation of the tanks is hoped will prevent most overflows, Mr Spannagle couldn’t rule out an extreme weather event in the future causing more issues.

Local oyster growers never received any financial compensation for closures as a result of the failings of the Council-run sewerage system.

“It cost us a fair bit just to engage a lawyer,” Mr Ford explained.

“For now we are just hoping they are getting on top of things so we can get on with business.”

By Ned COWIE