Toxicology expert slams plan to build sewerage plant in wetlands on Logan River

A toxicology expert along with a former town planner running for Logan City Council have both slammed plans to build a fourth sewage treatment plant on the Logan River.

Developer LendLease wants to build a sewage treatment plant to service a 10,000-person housing estate 4km away. PHOTO: JUDITH KERR

A TOXICOLOGY expert along with a former town planner running for Logan City Council have both slammed plans to build a fourth sewage treatment plant on the Logan River.

Professor of toxicology at Melbourne’s RMIT Jorma Ahokas said building the sewerage plant on the Logan River would jeopardise rare and ecologically-sensitve wetlands.

LOGAN RIVER SEWERAGE PLANT

POLISHING THE POO

Professor Ahokas said developer LendLease should look at environmentally sound options to service its proposed housing estate for 10,000 people.

He suggested siting the sewage plant on one of two small islands in Moreton Bay in front of the proposed Shoreline development.

Lendlease plans to build a sewage treatment plant on Serpentine Creek.

“The amount of waste water the plant would produce would be 1 million kilolitres a year, which LendLease proposes to dump on 10 hectares of environmentally protected mangroves, which are tidal,” Professor Ahokas said.

“That equates to 10 times the annual rainfall in that area which the mangroves would not be able to cope with.

“Any mishap with the plant and public health issues will emerge because of the prawn farms across the river.

“Lendlease claims that their work is based on work peer reviewed scientifically by a specific University of Queensland expert, however we have significant evidence to doubt the veracity of that claim.”

The red marker shows the property where Lendlease wants to build a sewerage plant.

Professor Ahokas said the sewerage plant should be built within the boundary of the Redland development and siting it outside the Shoreline footprint affected Logan residents.

Instead, LendLease wants to site it on Longland Rd, 4km away from the proposed housing development, which is currently being used for framing and cattle grazing.

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LendLease said the proposed “A” classified sewage treatment plant would cut out 99.9 per cent of pathogens prior to the water being dumped into the wetlands, before it runs into the Logan River.

“According to a report prepared by the CSIRO for the project, the combined system of the wastewater treatment plant and freshwater/mangrove wetlands will reduce pathogens to significantly lower levels than conventional treatment plants in southeast Queensland,” Lendlease said.

Requests have been made for the CSIRO report.

LendLease said its due diligence report was peer reviewed by CSIRO, University of Queensland and Griffith University.

The developer said international engineering firm GHD was engaged and it was now developing an environment assessment report for the State Government.

Once submitted, that report will be available for public comment.

A map showing the 4km route of a pipe from the proposed Shoreline site to the existing sewerage plant at Mount Cotton.

Logan City Council candidate for division 10 Bruce Laker said the plant would be superfluous as there was already a sewerage treatment plant less than 4km away from the site at German Church Road, Mt Cotton.

Mr Laker, a former town planner and civil engineer, said the Mt Cotton treatment plant could be upgraded and was originally designed and approved for 3500 house lots.

He dismissed as scaremongering Lendlease’s claims that a 13km pipe would have to be built through existing residential ztreets if their sewage treatment plant did not go ahead.

“When I designed the Mt Cotton estate, the sewerage plant was one of the mandatory requirements by Redland City Council before the estate could be approved,” he said.

“At present the wastewater from that plant is treated and then used on Carbrook Golf Course from a 300mm main,” Mr Laker said.

“But the Carbrook Golf Club has to regularly remove grass clippings so the nitrogen does not build up to toxic levels.

“Any pipeline going south of the Shoreline housing estate will have to go through an environmental management and conservation zone, a biodiversity corridor and the koala corridor as well as a bushfire zone and an acid sulphate area.”