Sewage spills into the Southern River

OVER 550,000L of sewage has spilled into the Southern River in Brookdale, Western Australia after routine maintenance work went wrong.

Repairs being undertaken by the Water Corporation on the major pipeline took longer than expected. As a result, the closed pumping stations upstream reached capacity and threatened to overflow into residential areas.

The authorities say alarm bells sounded at the pumping stations at 8pm on 9 July 2008 and workers were forced to release the build-up into the river to avoid a catastrophe.

The Southern River flows into the Canning River which then joins with Perth’s Swan River. The Swan River Trust and the Department of Environment and Conservation have both begun investigations into the incident and its possible environmental and health impacts.