Sewage flowing past Australian desal plant

Amos Aikman in the Australian: The current off Sydney's $1.9 billion desalination plant takes sewage from an outflow only 2.5km away directly past its intake about a third of the time. The environmental study used to justify the Kurnell plant's location relied in part on an assumption that because the prevailing current runs south, there would be little danger of E.coli from the sewage being sucked into its inflow, to the north.

But CSIRO scientists who monitor the current yesterday told The Australian that it sweeps north about a third of the time, and yesterday was one such day. It has been established that on some days, the amount of E.coli in intake water is more than double the guidelines for safe bathing.

The current has been flowing north for the past week. The east Australian current, which normally carries sewage from the Cronulla near-shore outfall, is currently involved in a cold-core eddy that has reversed its direction, CSIRO oceanographer David Griffin said yesterday.

…Data managed by the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water also confirms the current flows north about 30 per cent of the time. But Sydney Water's environmental project manager, Susan Trousdale, said data showed the current flowed southwards "well over 80 per cent of the time".

As reported yesterday, professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at the Australian National University, Peter Collignon, has claimed poor water quality at the Kurnell plant could create a public health disaster if filtering systems were ever to fail….

Shot of e. coli by Mattosaurus