Resident fury as developer ‘skirts rules’ to build Redland Bay sewerage plant

Mosquitoes, diseases, flooding, odours and falling property prices were raised at a forum about a proposed sewerage plant to be built at the gateway to Redland City. WATCH THE VIDEO

Mosquitoes, disease, flooding, smelly odours and plummeting property prices were some of the issues raised at a community forum to discuss a proposed southside sewerage plant to be built on the southern gateway to Redland City.

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More than 60 Logan and Redland residents attended information sessions, organised by developer Lendlease on the weekend.

The construction giant needs to get ministerial permission to build the plant in order to complete its 3000-plus housing estate which it has already started building at Redland Bay.

The meeting at Redland Bay on Saturday.

Under Lendlease plans for the estate, sewage will be pumped more than 4km where it will be pushed through a filtering membrane then flooded across planted mangroves before pumped along culverts and into the Logan River.

WaterTechnology director Tony McAlister told the crowd the filtering system would not smell and said his modelling showed there were enough mangroves to take nitrogen out of the sewage so it was safe enough to be tipped into the river, home to prawn farms and aquaculture businesses.

Resident and toxicology expert Jorma Ahokas, left, speaks with WaterTechnology’s Tony McAlister at the meeting on the weekend.

“The plant is on the other side of the Logan river to where the prawn farms are,” Mr McAlister said.

“There will be a minute amount of this recycled water which gets taken into the prawn farms and we have also done rigorous virus assessments to look at the potential implications.

“When you compare the implications to the Loganholme wastewater treatment plant 7km upstream, that is about 25 times the size of this plant, we need to put the risk in context.

“It is going into Serpentine Creek on the ebb tides which means the water is flowing out of the creek on the tide into the Logan.

“The amount of nutrients in the water when it goes into the river will be minimal considering there is another sewerage plant further upstream which does not use this new technology and is a lot more harmful to the environment.

“We are getting all the hydraulics and design of mangroves right including how you operate them and we talked to third parties to get expert advice on what we are doing but also if the mangroves don’t grow by nature we will plant them.”

Aquaculture ponds on the Logan River less than 1km upstream from the proposed sewerage plant.

Mr McAlister said Lendlease had consulted University of Queensland and Griffith University

Toxicologist Jorma Ahokas who lives on the river near the proposed site said his modelling showed the output of initially treated wastewater into the mangrove was equivalent to 10m of rainfall and would swamp the low-lying river plain.

“The outflow dissipated on 9.8 hectares of future mangrove is equivalent to 10 meters of rainfall and as such will have minimal residence time before entering the river,” he said.

“Lendlease had estimated that an alternative dryland dissipation of the effluent in an agricultural setting would require 160 hectares of land, without acknowledging that adjacent to the development there is 1200 hectares (12 square kilometres) of bushland reserves, for which bushfire preparedness would also be highly valuable.

“I’m most disappointed with the unwillingness to consider using the available recycled freshwater to aid in the cultivation of the adjacent 12 square kilometres of forest reserve as botanical and improved koala habitat.

“The main southern entrance to Redland City from the Gold Coast and a large part of Logan will be framed by a sewerage treatment plant.”

Lendlease senior development manager Joel Salmon said he understood residents’ concerns about the development and having a sewerage plant near their properties but said the housing estate was necessary for Redland City to meet state government population quotas.

LendLease senior development manager Joel Salmon at the meeting.

A 2011 Redland City Council document Redlands 2030 and Beyond said the city had to accommodate an additional 30,000 people by 2030 bringing the population to 180,000.

According to the latest census figures, the city’s population was 158,518 in 2019 with a density of 2.96 people per hectare.

There were no representatives from either Redland or Logan councils at the forum.

Mr Salmon said the developer would not build the sewerage plant on its land inside its own housing estate because it was against state and council zoning regulations.

He said three trucks a day would be using Cleveland-Redland Bay Rd where the developer had started building a temporary station to pump the sewage from the first 200 houses built.

Redland Bay resident Debra Anderson said that was a “cop out” and the development giant did not want to jeopardise its land sales by siting a sewerage plant next to where it was trying to sell land packages.

“They are happy to wreck the environment and the entrance to Redland City along with my property value by siting their own waste plant outside of their own development which is the cause of all the problems.

“This is a cheaper option for Lendlease which will bring them more money and cost us residents dearly.

“It’s shocking the way they have railroaded their business by building the estate and then bullying the state government into approving its sewerage plant after the fact.”

The Shoreline estate where lots will be under 450 sqm. It is being built before the sewerage plant which still has to get state government approval as it will drain into significant wetlands and the Logan River.

Logan Landowner Ken Thomas, who lives on the Logan River at the closest point to the proposed plant said erosion along the river bank was already an issue and would get worse with the flood of recycled water from the plant.

He said if the plant proceeds, his property would be seriously affected by erosion and contaminated water, flooding and smells.

Lendlease director Ian Murray and Mr Salmon were asked about injurious affection and financial compensation for affected adjoining or adjacent residents in their MID request. Both declined to comment.

“If this proposed infrastructure is so good with no potential issues including no localised flooding, no future human health issues and no virus contamination going into the river, why is a ‘no injurious affection’ clause requested by Lendlease,” Mr Thomas said.