Exclusive: Coast council removed pipe detectors and cut upgrades before sewer leak into river
The Gold Coast council pipe which leaked sewerage for months into the Albert River had failed several times - including nine days before it cracked, according to investigators. Full story
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The Gold Coast council pipe which leaked sewerage for three months into the Albert River had failed multiple times including nine days before it cracked, according to investigators.
Consultants AECOM, appointed by council, also discovered flow meters installed at a nearby pump station were removed earlier. This flow technology checks the daily amount of wastewater through the pipes and its data captures significant decreases.
Despite these failings the City’s expenditure on wastewater assets was halved, which meant fast forwarding a new northern treatement plant did not occur nor more staff inspections on the faulty pipeline network.
Gold Coast was spending three to four times less annually than neighbouring local authorities despite a population explosion in the city’s north and infrastructure delay which saw neighbouring Logan City treat Gold Coast waste from Stapylton, Yatala and Ormeau.
The Bulletin in early April exposed how the pipe - a sewer rising main crossing the Albert River just east of the Pacific Motorway linking to Logan’s Beenleigh treatment plant - was leaking untreated effluent.
Each day two Olympic-sized swimming pools of filth went undetected into the river from January 11 to April 8.
The State Environment Department (DESI), still mid-investigation, described council’s system breakdown as a “catastrophic failure”.
Residents had spotted 20-plus tankers sucking up sewage from a pipe near the Yatala Pie factory, to relieve system pressure as teams repaired the leak by the river.
They accused council of keeping the lid on the disaster for a week. Council has now released online its report by AECOM Australia’s Brisbane consultants.
It shows tankering was not adequate to shutdown the pipe - and the breakdown put pressures on the City’s wastewater system. No costing on commercial losses for the area’s fishing industry is provided - “the receiving area is sensitive; it is used for food production”. Nor are environmental impacts touched on.
The sewer rising main (SRM), where the breakdown occurred at MacPherson Road, was constructed in 2005. The investigation confirmed two failures of the pipe before the latest but there were more.
The previous latest failure was on January 2. From January 11 to April 8, the calculated total spill was 450 megalitres.
“There are reports of earlier failures on the same SRM, but the dates and nature of the failures were not contained in the documentation reviewed by the investigation team,” investigators wrote.
They found the SRM had flow meters installed at the nearby Yatala pump station in 2015 to support planning for a future capital renewal project. This was the Stapleton waste water treatement plant upgrade which was delayed, as the City negotiated extended deals with Logan to handle its wastewater.
“However, it is understood they (the flow meters) were installed on the pump risers and were subsequently removed in 2018, because their arrangement resulted in poor quality data, due to backflow and reflux,” investigators wrote.
“No suitable alternative locations for meters were identified.”
A condition assessment in 2018 predicted at least 10 years remaining useful life, but the pipe’s failure was due to internal corrosion - and those risks were ignored.
“The condition of the SRM had been identified by CoGC personnel, but condition assessments were deferred a number of times, or were not prioritised,” investigators wrote.
A proposed future wastewater project which would have reduced the flows passing through the pipe and allowed it to be renewed had it not been deferred a number of times, despite concerns over its condition.
Investigators concluded “microbiologically influenced corrosion” and “sulphur-reducing bacteria” were the most likely cause of the pipe’s huge hole.
But they also found records showing in the financial year 2021-22, the City’s expenditure in tactical asset management of wastewater network assets was half what it was the previous year and “some peers are spending three to four times more per kilometre”.
They concluded SRM expenditure was “under-resourced”.
The incident began with an SRM break with sewerage leaking into the Albert River, and a later became an overflow from Yatala pump station, the report said.
Gold Coast City first became aware of a leak near 5 MacPherson Road due to a property owner calling its call centre at 5:25pm on April 8, investigators said.
The rising main was isolated at 8pm with flows diverted to a parallel pipe.
Due to flow constraints through the smaller pipe, this caused a secondary overflow from a nearby sewage pump station.
Gold Coast City checked with Logan City Council for flows arriving at its Beenleigh sewerage treatment plant and discovered there had been a break on January 11 - three months earlier.
“An estimated 5ML per day (dry weather) was discharged from the location of the break to the Albert River until the evening of 8 April 2024, when the DN450 sewer rising main was isolated,” investigators said.
Key factors leading to the failure were the Coast council depending on pipe breakages to be reported by staff or residents and higher than average Albert and Logan River water flows preventing boaties from noticing the spill.
The flow meter for the pipe at the Beenleigh sewerage treatment plant operated by Logan City Council was “not alarmed or monitored regularly” by City of Gold Coast.
Logan City Council did not communicate significantly lower flows to Gold Coast, investigators said.
They have recommended Gold Coast City install alarm flow instruments on sewerage inflow pipes, review design and construction of pipes installed with the 2003-2005 contract and check staffing to support proactive monitoring.
They also suggested revising the arrangement between the two councils “to ensure both parties to communicate with each other when a significant change is observed”.
City CEO Tim Baker has welcomed the AECOM report and said the council commenced implementation of several key recommendations in April after the leak was detected.
“The City is committed to rigorous and continual improvement across all areas, and we are committed to applying lessons learnt to prevent future incidents,” Mr Baker said.
He confirmed the break was due to corrosion most likely caused by “aggressive” soil or groundwater, and the omission of a specified wrapping for the pipe at the time of installation was also a contributing factor.
“Much of this work is already under way, including the development of a four-year critical sewerage pressure main plan, targeted condition assessments of all high-risk mains and reviewing of the specific piping installed during that period,” he said.
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