Exclusive: Secret report suggests fats, oils and grease accumulate in ‘inaccessible dead zone’ at Malabar plant, then dislodge when pumping pressure ‘rapidly increases’

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53542275

A giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.

Sydney Water isn’t sure exactly how big the fatberg is because it can’t easily access where it has accumulated.

Fixing the problem would require shutting down the outfall – which reaches 2.3km offshore – for maintenance and diverting sewage to “cliff face discharge”, which would close Sydney’s beaches “for months”, a secret report obtained by Guardian Australia states.

“The working hypothesis is FOG [fats, oils and grease] accumulation in an inaccessible dead zone between the Malabar bulkhead door and the decline tunnel has potentially led to sloughing events, releasing debris balls,” the report concludes.

“This chamber was not designed for routine maintenance and can only be accessed by taking the DOOF offline and diverting effluent to the cliff face for an extended period (months), which would close Sydney beaches.”

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    22 hours ago

    At some point they’ll need to do it. But, probably, it won’t happen until the political cost is too high, and they just can’t hide or ignore the problem anymore. They’ll try some cheaper, interim fix that won’t work, wasting more money. If they do it now, it will cost what it will cost. If they wait, it will cost much more. But, of course, if they can push it off onto the next administration that would be ideal.