Brooms Head residents fight Clarence Valley Council sewage plan

Coastal community stands up for their town in the face of a council plan they fear will cause permanent damage.

Members of the Brooms Head community are standing up for their coastal village in the face of a council plan they fear will cause permanent damage.

The Brooms Head Community Action Group will hold a meeting at the Brooms Head hall this Saturday at 1pm to discuss its opposition to a new sewage system for the Brooms Head Holiday Park, operated by Clarence Valley Council.

The system is a prerequisite for the expansion and redevelopment of the council-owned holiday park, which was ratified by council in 2017.

Convener of the meeting on behalf of the group, Paul McCrea, said the first they knew of the plan was a flyer in January, followed by drill rigs in their front yard.

“They were drilling to find out where the water table was,” he said.

“The area is 300m by six metres wide by an unspecified depth that it will take up.

“Our concern is excavating a sand dune in 2021 when most sand dunes say stay off – it’s the antithesis of what should be done.”

Mr McCrea said the concept plan of pumping up to 160,000 litres of treated wastewater into the sand dune runs a real risk of destabilising the dune as well as leeching onto the main swimming beach.

“If you had to think of what would be the worst place to put that amount – it’s in the sand dune.”

In its letter to residents, council stated it undertook a risk management process over the past four years and considered a number of sites over that time.

“During the process all other options and sites were considered and ruled out due to a range of environmental or tenure issues. These included saturated water tables, environmental protection zones, impact on native vegetation, proximity to waterways and/or the beach as well as land which may not be owned or controlled by the Crown or the council in the future,” the letter said.

It states while the system will be built with a 160kL capacity, the average usage for eight months of the year was between 20-30kL, with usage spiking at holiday times.

“The monitoring showed a maximum wastewater generation of 113.3kL/day on January 3, 2018. The treatment system needs to allow for future infrastructure of sullage which needs to be installed throughout the park. Hydraulic modelling has estimated maximum loads of 143.4KL a day with the additional infrastructure,” it said.

Mr McCrea said the community remained unconvinced of the plan, which assures residents of contingency plans and safety of possible degradation or leaks.

“It doesn’t pass the sniff test,” he said. “What we’re asking from council is to come up with a viable alternative to their unviable option of dumping so much sewerage into a front sand dune that is used by the community.”

The residents’ concerns are backed by Deakin University Professor of Environmental Engineering Wendy Timms, who expressed her concerns over the project in a letter to Clarence Valley Council.

Ms Timms stated she was a regular camper at Brooms Head since the 1970s and was very familiar with the proposed site and surrounds but remained independent of the nearby residents, businesses and others affected by the proposal.

Her summary states that on the basis of information currently available, she believed the proposed site for the new wastewater disposal trench poses significant risks. Alternative sites and wastewater treatment designs are strongly recommended.

“It should not proceed until design is checked to be fit-for-purpose, and concerns of potential risks to human health, the environment, geotechnical stability, and neighbouring properties are adequately addressed and independently reviewed,” she wrote.

Mr McCrea said the meeting was important to get residents up to speed on all the details before a future community consultation with Clarence Valley Council acting general manager Laura Black, who they had approached at a recent council meeting.

“Our hope is that they listen to the people – because we think Brooms Head is more than just a holiday park,” he said.

“As residents and day-trippers and visitors and ratepayers we think council needs to represent something other than their park.”