Port Macquarie Council investigating oil dumped at water treatment plant
A Mid-North Coast council is grappling with the impacts of the commercial-scale dumping of oil at a council facility. Here’s what we know.
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The public is being urged to report any suspicious tanker activity after a commercial quantity of oil was dumped into a Mid-North Coast council water treatment plant.
Port Macquarie-Hastings Council is grappling to minimise run-off to a nearby creek reserve and has halted the production of recycled water from the plant.
A thick layer of oil was found blanketing the surface of the treatment plant reactors last Tuesday, where Port Macquarie’s waste water is treated and discharged as effluent into the nearby Kooloonbung Creek.
The amount of oil dumped illegally into the town’s sewage system was consistent with amounts used by commercial operations, the council’s group manager of utilities operations Dr Cornelia Wiebels said.
“Staff have been diligently working to contain and remove the pollutant, in an attempt to limit its impacts on the environment through the plant’s natural discharge process into Kooloonbung Creek,” Dr Wiebels said.
“Not only does this come at an environmental cost, but there are significant financial costs to the community to extract this amount of pollution from the treatment plant.”
Halting the production of recycled water from the plant is also placing increased demand on drinking water.
Under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act, Council has the power to impose financial penalties of up to $4000 for individuals or $8000 for corporations for environmental pollution.
“We urge anyone who may have seen any suspicious tanker activity last week, to report it to council’s customer service by phoning 6581 8111,” Dr Wiebels said.
“All reports will be dealt with in strict confidence.”
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