Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know that industry continues to discharge trade waste into our sewers. Trade waste like all sewer waste goes to treatment plants for treatment, and eventually the treated sewage is discharged into our rivers or oceans via outfalls. The level of treatment at sewerage plants will vary from plant to plant. Some conduct only primary treatment, such as the treatment plants at Bondi in Sydney, while others such as those discharging into the Hawkesbury or Nepean rivers may have secondary or even tertiary treatment. The levels of pollutants remaining in the discharge to the outfalls will therefore vary, but it is clear that some pollutants get through, particularly at those treatment plants with primary treatment only.

Ms Clair Weaver, in a Sunday Telegraph article on 11 May 2008, wrote about radioactive waste from Sydney hospitals being discharged into the sewer, and while Sydney Water demanded the installation of decay tanks, still today not all hospitals have decay tanks. New South Wales Health cited prohibitive costs and a lack of proper research as reasons, and promptly had a review of the Sydney Water report and used it to defend their position.

We must therefore ask a number of questions. What are the people who work for our water authorities being exposed to? Is it safe? What impact do these discharges have on our marine ecosystems? It is such an important issue that I recently asked for and was granted a briefing from Sydney Water. The Sydney Water website provides information about what is permitted to be discharged into our sewers as trade waste—at a cost to the businesses concerned. Substances like arsenic, boron, bromine, chlorine, mercury and many other compounds end up in the sewer. We have to ask ourselves: why allow it in the first place? Why allow dangerous and toxic substances to enter into our sewerage systems?

Sydney Water and other water authorities have guidelines in place regarding acceptable amounts and I am sure that they believe that most companies are responsible. But can they give a 100 per cent rock-solid guarantee? Probably not. And the fact is that what is discharged from outfalls across the country is not 100 per cent clean water. Sydney Water will not make that claim and I am sure that all the other water authorities across Australia will not either.

Some of this cocktail of chemicals, toxic substances, radioactivity and bacteria ends up in the ocean. Even at the small concentrations claimed by Sydney Water, what are the long-term effects on the marine ecosystem and on marine life? What are the long-term effects on the workers who access our treatment plants? What new unidentified substances are created by this cocktail? Sydney Water will claim that workers are only exposed to acceptable doses, whether from radiation or chemicals or other toxic substances, and that they ensure that any exposure is within tolerable limits. I have no doubt that ensuring workers safety is a priority. But the fact remains that Sydney Water does not do health checks on workers as a matter of course, either during the course of their employment, prior to retirement or post-employment. I am very concerned about this. Will this be the asbestos of the future? What price will have to be paid?

We must make a priority the development of new technologies to eliminate the need for trade waste to be discharged as effluent. We must now recognise that world’s best practice is no longer good enough and that we must protect not only workers but our oceans, marine life and river systems. While Sydney Water will argue there is no cost benefit to removing all waste, the cost to our health and marine ecosystems may be much greater in the future because we do not know what the long-term impact of even low concentrations of these substances will be. State governments can no longer look upon water authorities as cash cows to improve the budget bottom line. Through the processes of COAG and through the National Water Initiative, all governments must prevent waste ending up in our rivers and oceans and must protect workers and marine ecosystems. Our lives may one day depend on it.

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