Effluent Outfall

At a beach near you

The outfall at Gunnamatta beach is a great example of worst practice water management. Since the South-East Outfall commenced discharging in 1974, 2,135,068,875,000 litres of effluent has gone to Gunnamatta. The daily flow in 1974 was 60 ML/d and has increased to the current flow of 450 ML/d. Each day, an average of 450 million litres per day (ML/d) is discharged at Gunnamatta Beach from four treatment plants: Eastern Treatment Plant: 430 ML/d Operated by Melbourne Water Rosebud, Hastings and Mornington Treatment Plants: 20 ML/d Operated by South-East Water The pipe to Gunnamatta is 56km long and is 10 metres from the shore. The Environment Protection Act 1970 authorises the EPA to implement the State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) to "attain levels of water quality". The EPA issues Melbourne Water and South-East Water with a conditional licence permitting effluent discharge at Gunnamatta. The licence states what the treatment standards are, what chemical testing programme is to be used, and what pollution is not to occur at Gunnamatta. This waste discharged must not cause the following: Exhibit visible floating oil, grease, litter or other objectionable floating matter Generate objectionable odours Death of fish or other motile species Contamination of fish and crustaceans which causes them to be unacceptable in commercial markets or which causes them to exceed health standards as set out in National Health and Medical Research Council's Food Standards Code The outfall should never have been permitted at Gunnamatta because the State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) states that in designating a mixing zone there must be no adverse effects on any protected beneficial use within that mixing zone. Examples of beneficial uses are swimming, fishing and surfing. A mixing zone is a defined area around the outfall where pollution is expected. The Gunnamatta patrolled surfing beach falls within a mixing zone.

Powered by Taten webevolve™