Narara: Central Coast Council hit with $418k in penalties after 1.8 million litres of raw sewage spilled into creek
The Central Coast Council has been hit with a huge fine after its failures caused the equivalent of 7000 Olympic swimming pools of raw poo to spill into a creek.
Central Coast
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The Central Coast Council has been slapped with a more than $400,000 bill by the Land and Environment Court (LEC) after failing to maintain a sewage pipeline, which caused nearly 2 million litres of sewage to spill into Narara Creek.
The incident occurred when the West Gosford major sewage rising main, or pipeline, failed in April 2023 and about 1.83 million litres of untreated sewage — the equivalent to 7000 Olympic swimming pools — was released into the creek, which is a tributary of Brisbane Water.
The court found the council did not properly maintain the rising main at its south sewage treatment system in Kincumber and failed to undertake preventive maintenance work following a similar failure of the rising main in 2020.
The Environmental Protection Authority’s executive director of operations, David Gathercole, said the 2023 incident resulted in significant pollution of Narara Creek, Fagan’s Bay and Brisbane Water.
“Apart from the obvious odour and visual pollution impacts that would have been observed by the community, the release of untreated sewage into the environment resulted in increased ammonia levels as far as Brisbane Water and reduced dissolved oxygen levels in surface water,” Mr Gathercole said.
“These changes in water quality can severely impact aquatic plants and animals.
“Following the earlier incident in 2020, the council failed to implement a suitable preventive maintenance plan that may have prevented this latest event.
“It is crucial that the Central Coast Council ensures it has effective maintenance and repair schedules in place to protect the community and the environment.”
In addition to a fine of $105,600, the court agreed to a council proposal that involves completing a $151,900 restoration project of the Narara Creek Wetlands.
The council has also been ordered to pay the authority’s costs of investigating and prosecuting the matter, bringing the total penalty to $418,562.
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