'Very high' health risks from Sydney's last ocean sewage outlets

Kevin Young, Sydney Water’s managing director, said popular beaches such as Bondi continue to report good water quality despite their proximity to the discharge, given the ocean's ability to dissipate the waste.

Still, the pollution report was "the most comprehensive piece of work that we've done for decades", modelling health and environmental risks more precisely than before, Mr Young told the Herald. "It provides a strong case for moving forward."

The outfalls - which date from 1916, 1932 and 1936 - take waste from 10,500 people living nearby. Average daily flows amount to about four million litres, released close to the sea surface.

Sydney's untreated waste ocean outfalls have been discontinued over the decades but closure of the three near Vaucluse has been stymied for decades in part because of local disagreement.

Concerns have ranged from whether upgrading the waste network would clear the way for an increase in housing development in the region, to possible negative impacts on property values from  tunnelling.

"The technological solutions available are completely different now than they would have been [in previous decades]," Mr Young said, citing micro-tunnelling that Sydney Water has used in Green Square and is deploying in Wooloomooloo.

Community consultation will begin next month to determine how the outfalls should be closed, with the most likely outcome involving diversion of waste to a treatment plant at Bondi Beach.

Sydney Water would look to include the project by the end of next year - if agreement has been reached - in its next round of infrastructure works that will not begin before 2020.

A spokeswoman for Waverley Council said it doesn't have a preferred option but was "supportive of options that are cost-effective and have minimum impact on the local community".

"Our key concern is that council believes it is unacceptable that [4 million litres] of untreated wastewater enters our coastline each day," the spokeswoman said.

Jeff Angel, head of the Total Environment Centre, said "it's about time" steps were being taken.

"Closing the outfalls should have been done in the 1980s," Mr Angel said. "Too much untreated sewage along with all the plastics pollution have gone into the ocean."

Gabrielle Upton, the member for Vaucluse and Environment Minister, also welcomed Sydney Water's report.

"Any outcome requires collaboration, so I’m urging our local community to actively participate in Sydney Water’s public consultation so we can both protect what the local community values and the environment," Mr Upton said.

Her colleague, Bruce Notley-Smith, the member for Coogee, said the report was "important for our marine environment which is so dear to the people of my electorate".

"These are the last untreated wastewater outfalls -  this would surprise many in the community, and it’s simply time for them to go," Mr Notley-Smith said.

Justin Field, the Greens urban water spokesman, agreed it was "hard to believe that in 2018 we are still sending raw sewage out into our ocean".

“The public were expecting a government commitment and funding announcement to fix this pollution, not another round of consultation," Mr Field said.

"This problem is taking place in Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton’s blue backyard but there is yet more delay on putting an end to untreated wastewater flowing from ocean outfalls at Vaucluse and Diamond Bay.”