Sydney Water forced to pay over sewage leak
By Georgia Fullerton
Sydney Water have been ordered to pay $157,000 in damages after pleading guilty to neglect that resulted in a sewage leak in Malabar.
The Land and Environment court charged Sydney Water with failure to comply with their environment protection licence, after a sewage leak affected Malabar Headlands in September of 2013.
The leak was a result of Sydney Water’s failure to maintain a pipe at the Malabar Waste Water Treatment Plant. An estimated 500,000 litres of treated effluent was reportedly discharged into the ocean near Yellow Rock, an amount which could have been flowing for up to five days.
David Pyett, Chair of Friends of Malabar Headlands, believes the overall quality of the headlands needs to be considered.
“The federal government is spending a lot of money re-mediating the Headland. Sydney Water need to take better care in the future to make sure that the remediation is preserved,” he said.