Oyster growers on the New South Wales Mid North Coast are threatening legal action against a local council if it doesn’t resolve ongoing issues with its outdated sewerage system.
Key points:
- The NSW EPA says the Nambucca Valley Council is at fault for multiple contamination spills
- Spills from the sewerage overflow has cost the local oyster industry millions of dollars in losses
- Oyster growers are threatening legal action if a long-term solution is not found
The state’s environmental regulator has found Nambucca Valley Council’s sewer matriculation system led to three overflows into the Nambucca River over a six-month period between October 2022 and April 2023.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued the council with two official cautions over its handling of overflows into the estuary.
Huge losses
Data from the council shows there have been at least 17 sewage overflows that have affected the Nambucca River in the past two years.
Local oyster growers say it has been an ongoing issue for at least a decade.
Paul Armstrong, who has been in the industry for nearly 30 years, said his business had lost more than half a million dollars in the past five.
“It’s been the worst, [the spills] have ramped up more and more with all the new subdivisions and the sewerage system not big enough to take it,” he said.
He is one of seven local growers along the waterway who have threatened legal action against the council, seeking financial compensation and hoping to force urgent repairs.
Ross Fox from Fishburn Watson O’Brien Lawyers, who is representing the farmers, said their collective losses were substantial.
“The closures have meant no harvests or income for local oyster farmers over Christmas or Easter for two years running, impacting customers and consumer confidence,” he said.
“Council needs to urgently fix the underlying cause of these spills, which is a dilapidated sewage system that is no longer fit for purpose.”
No long-term solution
Nambucca Valley Council general manager Chris Thompson said the council had made urgent repairs to the system that were ordered by the EPA in July.
But Mr Thomspon said the council was still searching for a long-term solution to minimise the risk of future spills.
“We haven’t identified an engineering solution to some of the more problematic pump stations that we have in our area, which are below the kind of standards that they would be built by today,” he said.
“They’re built on flood prone areas, [and] if we were just to upgrade those in isolation there would be a knock-on effect and a downstream effect.”
Mr Thompson said the council was working with a number of state agencies, such as the EPA and the Department of Environment and Planning, to find a long-term solution.
He said the council had commissioned an integrated water cycle management plan, which was expected to take 10-12 months to complete.
“[The plan] really informs council about how much investment we’re going to need in our sewerage system into the future,” Mr Thompson said.
Oyster grower Brandon Armstrong said the survival of the Nambucca oyster industry was in the balance.
“Our operations and ability to harvest oysters are in jeopardy,” he said.
“The system is broken, we need action and we need compensation, we don’t need more working groups, this is not an episode of Utopia.”
