Treatment Plants

Case Study

Treatment plants in Australia are outdated and predominantly defunct. A classic example of this is Melbourne’s Eastern Treatment Plant

The Eastern Treatment Plant (formerly called the South Eastern Purification Plant) commenced discharging secondary treated effluent to Gunnamatta in 1974. This came about after a long process to deal with the issues that Melbourne faced in the 1950's with a rising amount of sewage and associated disease from sewage and storm-water problems. Melbourne was expanding rapidly to the east and south-east and it was becoming further away from the treatment plant at Werribee. MMBW decided in 1964 to build a major sewage treatment plant near Carrum to service the eastern zone.

The South-Eastern Purification Plant was sited at Carrum. The MMBW chose the option of ocean outfall to Bass Strait at a cost of £45 million as opposed to discharge to Port Phillip Bay at a cost of £28 million. Financial uncertainty in 1967 continued and plans were drawn up to discharge for 10 years off Carrum until an ocean outfall could be built. Mayors of bayside suburbs immediately opposed this plan, followed by a rapid rise in public opposition to discharge to the Bay. Petitions were signed by holiday-makers around the Bay and the Mayor of Frankston at the time claimed it would turn the bay into "the world's biggest septic tank". Other options to discharge were investigated such as selling purified effluent for crop irrigation or as an industrial coolant for industry around Western Port. These options were deemed not to be economically viable. The MMBW argued that there was no danger to health and effluent discharged at Werribee was of a less pure standard without adverse effects. Some experts were concerned about whether polio and hepatitis viruses could survive treatment and reach the Bay with more general concern centred around the effect of the initial 50 million litres per day of highly mineralized water on marine life.

The Metal Trades Federation of Unions and the Building Trades federation threatened to black ban the scheme if effluent was discharged to the Bay. A State election was coming up and the Liberal government were in danger of losing seats due to problems with sewage in Melbourne and the government decided against the Bay outfall. Sir Rupert Hamer, Minister for Local Government at the time accepted the MMBW's warning that water rates were to increase to cover the extra £17 million to build the outfall to Gunnamatta. This was the final obstacle to the completion of the South-Eastern Purification plant and the 56 kilometre pipeline to Gunnamatta.

By today's standards and knowledge of the impact that arises from effluent outfall, the Gunnamatta outfall option would not have been implemented. In comparison to the Bay it was seen as a better option and at the time, most of Australia only treated their water to a primary standard so it was accepted that improvements in handling sewage had been made. Even today, Sydney's outfalls are only primary treatment. A government acting with long term vision would have chosen the reuse option. Long-term options are always more expensive and as they are called "long term options", less money is spent on the overall project over time.

Melbourne Water is a statutory authority of the State of Victoria. It was originally constituted as the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works ("MMBW") in 1890. The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works Act, 1958 vested Melbourne's water supply and sewerage works on the Board upon trust "… for the purposes … of providing for the sewerage and drainage of the metropolis".

According to MMBW's historians Dingle and Rasmussen in Vital Connections; Melbourne and its Board of Works (McPhee Gribble; 1991), the MMBW acquired additional powers to make industries pay for the collection and disposal of wastes in 1979. After a Federal Parliamentary report in 1982 strongly criticizing inadequate toxic-waste disposal throughout Australia, the MMBW transferred the monitoring of industrial waste disposal to the EPA (page 379).

In 1992, the name of MMBW was changed to become Melbourne Water Corporation. Trading as Melbourne Water, it continues to hold the State's metropolitan water supply and sewerage works upon that pre-existing public statutory trust. Today, Melbourne Water's operations are primarily governed by the Melbourne Water Corporation Act, 1992 and the Water Industry Act, 1994.

Melbourne Water must "as far as practicable, perform its functions in a manner consistent with sound commercial practice" (see s.12 of the Melbourne Water Corporation Act). It must also act only in accordance with a corporate plan (s.41) approved by the State Treasurer and the Minister for Conservation and Environment. Nevertheless, Melbourne Water is not, and does not represent the Crown.

Accordingly, since 1891, Melbourne Water has been responsible for the management of Melbourne's wastewater, sewerage and trade waste. It utilizes two major waste treatment plants, one of which is the ETP. The operation of the ETP involves the waste being treated and then discharged to the ocean via the outfall located just below the low-water mark at Boags Rocks. Boags Rocks is located within the Mornington Peninsula National Park and is immediately adjacent to the primary recreation area of Gunnamatta Beach and the beachside suburb of St Andrews. A map showing the location of the Boags Rocks outfall and the extent of the 4 km littoral mixing zone is attached as Appendix 2.

Originally, the then MMBW was obliged to apply to the EPA for a licence pursuant to the Environment Protection Act 1970 to discharge the waste into the ocean at Boags Rocks. This licence was first granted on 15 August 1975 and was formally transferred to Melbourne Water on 26 June 1992. On 15 March 1988, the State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) ("the SEPP") came into effect. This policy requires the EPA"… shall ensure that any works approval, licence or licence amendment which is granted is consistent with this policy". In the Foundation's submission, the Boags Rocks licence does not comply with and is therefore in breach of the SEPP.

On 11 June 1993, the Boags Rocks licence was revoked under s.20(9)(b) of the Environment Protection Act. New conditions were imposed under s.20(9)(c), including a requirement that strategies be developed for reducing the quantities and toxicity of the waste. Melbourne Water and the EPA have been continuously renegotiating the Boags Rocks licence ever since.

The EPA is to be commended for continuing to press Melbourne Water for compliance with the SEPP. This pressure has lead to the commissioning of many reports, in particular:

South Eastern Effluent Ocean Outfall Study (Camp Scott Furphy/Consulting Environmental Engineers, November 1992);

• Eastern System Strategy, South Eastern Outfall Background Review (Andrew Dunn, July 1995);
• Eastern Treatment Plant Effluent Disposal Review (D A Lord & Associates, March 1996);
• CSIRO Final Report, Environmental Impact Assessment and Review of Effluent Disposal Options for Eastern Treatment Plant (CSIRO Environmental Projects Office, June 1999).

These reports, together with others, are available and will be referred to in what follows.

The Boags Rocks licence has always allowed Melbourne Water to discharge up to 770 megalitres per day of ETP effluent from the outfall. In September 1994, Melbourne Water and the EPA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in which the only reference to the outfall was the parties' agreement to "… jointly sponsoring a process to reduce community concerns relating to the Boags Rocks outfall" (Dunn, page 27).

In June 1995, Melbourne Water's official view was outlined in a letter to the EPA, namely: "… in the medium to long term the outfall at Boags Rocks will have to be extended". In July 1995, the parties agreed (Licence clause 4.21, since deleted) that Melbourne Water must: a)... undertake and complete an investigation and consultation program, by 30 June 1998, to evaluate treatment, re-use and outfall extension options to improve environmental performance. b) By December 31 1998, the licence holder must submit a report to the Authority for approval, which addresses Melbourne Water's preferred option/s, works program/s and time frame/s for the implementation of option/s as referred to in sub-clause (a). c) The implementation of the approved program of works/processes, as referred to in sub-clause (b), must be completed by 30 June 2002. (Dunn, page 29)

This has resulted in Melbourne Water producing a compendium of material entitled "Sustainable Resource Management at Eastern Treatment Plant: Information in Support of a Works Approval Application" ("SRMETP") which identifies two potential further initiatives for amelioration of the discharge impacts in an attempt to comply with the SEPP, namely, tertiary treatment and outfall extension. The costing put forward in the SRMETP for these two initiatives amounts to $216 million.

In anticipation of a Works Approval, Melbourne Water embarked upon a community consultation process that resulted in community unrest. As a result, the EPA took control of the Boags Rocks licence review process.

In cases that amount to a "special problem", the EPA may co-opt a panel of experts (s.13(h)). This has occurred. This panel has specific terms of reference; including, "advise the Authority on community views and aspirations in relation to the ocean discharge of treated effluent and attitudes to its alternative use".

On 19 December 2001, Melbourne Water applied for works approval for "upgrade of treatment process to facilitate increased recycling and address environmental impact of effluent discharge. The commencement date for the proposed works is 30 June 2002 and the completion date is 30 June 2008.

The panel has conducted an informal consultative process and has now been given the responsibility of convening this s.20B conference. Section 20B of the Environment Protection Act provides that the EPA may "… if it is of the opinion that a conference of persons concerned in any matter under consideration by the Authority may assist in a just resolution of the matter, invite all or any of the interested parties to a conference."

Clean Ocean Foundation have demonstrated that the Boags Rocks outfall is operating in contravention of the SEPP. It has also identied the relevant factors the EPA can take into account when assessing the present works approval application and concludes that the EPA must introduce a sunset clause into the Boags Rocks licence that prohibits discharge of any effluent after 31 December 2010

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