Light at the end of the sewage pipeline for Gunnamatta

The Brumby Government has announced an upgrade to the Eastern Treatment Plant (ETP) in Victoria to clean up the effluent discharged at Gunnamatta beach, one of the waves listed as Australia’s most endangered in ASL’s Green Issue.

At the moment, around 450 million litres of class C level sewage is discharged into the lineup at Gunnamatta everyday, containing a nasty mix of pathogens (including viruses and bacteria), chemicals, residual chlorine and heavy metals. The upgrade will provide class A recycled water to the outfall, dramatically improving the surrounding water quality.

Up to seven billion litres of the treated class A effluent from the ETP will be increasingly used for a range of purposes including industry, agriculture, sportsgrounds, open spaces and residential housing developments throughout southeast Victoria.

Clean Ocean Foundation CEO, Anton Vigenser says it’s a positive step, but he believes Melbourne Water is out of touch, as proved by their false belief that marine life will benefit from the upgrade at Gunnamatta.

“The main pollutant to marine life at Gunnamatta is fresh water,” explains Anton. “The upgrade alone mainly reduces the health risk to beach users. The upgrade also means the outfall will actually meet EPA licence guidelines it has been breaching since 1974.”

The Victorian Government has committed to upgrading Melbourne’s ETP to class A recycled water by 2012. Clean Ocean is relieved that after years of campaigning the government are finally taking a stance, yet is not 100 per cent convinced. “We are not holding our breath on any of these smaller options being delivered any time soon and in any great reuse scale given these figures” says Anton.

At the moment Gunnamatta needs all the help it can get. To find out more about the current state of Gunna go to www.cleanocean.org. A full run down of Australia’s most endangered waves can be found in the August Issue of ASL.