7th June 2006

Words from CleanOcean.org

The Clean Ocean Foundation has joined local residents and the State Opposition in opposing the Bracks Government's plan to build an industrial sewage treatment facility at 13th Beach between Barwon Heads and Torquay.

Barwon Water has refused to specify the exact nature of the factory they plan to build at 13th Beach. What is known is that they will be thermal drying sludge at the site, which is the residual of the sewage treatment process.

Whilst the Clean Ocean Foundation welcomes any upgrade to the outdated facility, the location of this facility is entirely inappropriate said Pete Smith, a spokesperson for the Clean Ocean Foundation.

Although the reuse of 'biosolids' is long overdue in Victoria, the State Government is using this as a stalling tactic to draw attention away from the real issue; which is the urgent need to upgrade the entire facility, and to stop pouring 160 million litres of sewage into the ocean off 13th Beach every day.

For more information check out the Clean Ocean website.