The robot camera (inset) that helped gauge pollution in Yarralumla Creek. Photo: Joss Browning / ACT Government.
Government environment officers have found the cause of a mysterious white foam that bubbled up in the Yarralumla Creek stormwater channel last week – thanks largely to some nifty robotic tech.
A member of the community spotted “the white stuff” on Wednesday (4 June), claiming in a post to the Canberra Notice Board Group on Facebook that it was “feeding into the lake”.
Comments suggested it may be caused by someone washing paint down the drain further up the system.
Another said he had come across a similar substance in a Phillip stormwater channel which the ACT Government’s Environment Protection Agency (EPA) traced back to “someone a few suburbs away dodgily resurfacing a driveway and washing it all down the drain”.
“They called me back to let me know what the cause was – and that the person received a hefty fine,” the comment read.
Others suggested the strange white substance might have been “Raiders’ tears” or “snow from Parliament’s climate control system” designed to “artificially chill the political tempers”.
EPA senior director Dr Su Wild-River put the rumours to rest this week, telling Region the government crews had identified the cause.
She declined to provide more information due to it being an active investigation but said “further inquiries are underway to determine the appropriate response”.
“We identified there was no risk to the environment and because it had dried and stabilised, it wasn’t actually causing any harm.”
EPA officials attended the scene the same day the report was received (4 June). Photo: Joss Browning, Canberra Notice Board Group, Facebook.
The EPA enforces the Water Resources Act 2007 on behalf of the ACT Government, dealing with matters relating to noise and water pollution. Anyone can report an issue to the EPA by phoning Access Canberra, 24/7.
“We rely heavily on public reporting of pollution, which does play a crucial role in identifying pollution sources and pollution events. The public really are our eyes and ears,” Dr Wild-River said.
These reports are triaged and either followed up later with a letter or, in urgent cases such as Yarralumla, a visit by EPA officials within hours.
“The most common complaints we get are about noise – often coming from a neighbour’s house,” she said.
“We get thousands of these a year, so we’ve found the most efficient way is to send the person identified as making the noise a letter. We don’t usually attend on the first offence.”
Apparently, more than half the reports are resolved through this process.
The robotic camera prepares to travel down a drain. Photo: ACT Government.
But for issues posing more serious environmental harm, such as an oil slick flowing down a stormwater drain, Dr Wild-River said “we’d get somebody down there right away”.
Typically, crews consult maps of the ACT’s stormwater channels to track a pollutant’s origin. They then undertake field inspections, collect water samples or run dye tests.
“We have a lot of tools in the toolkit and use them as appropriate to the situation, to the pollution and where it’s happening,” Dr Wild-River said.
“We have maps of all the underground stormwater systems and where they go … so we collect water samples at different locations and reverse engineer that to a source.
“We can also use non-toxic dyes that show up really fluorescent colours to help us trace illegal chemical leaks.”
But the highest tech player in the EPA’s arsenal of pollution-fighting weapons is the robotic camera.
“It’s a little camera on a remote-control body that can crawl up a drain,” Dr Wild-River said.
“Roads ACT use it for identifying maintenance issues with water drains and pipes – not just pollution issues. You put it in the channel and then guide it up the drain to see where the pollution starts.
“That’s what we did in this Yarralumla Creek case and identified the source of the pollution.”
Most of the time, all this work can be done in a day, except in particularly complex cases.
As for what happens next, polluting a waterway is an offence under ACT law. This includes “placing a pollutant in a position where it is likely to pollute a waterway by entering a stormwater system”.
This carries a maximum fine of $1600 for an individual and $8100 for a corporation.
The robotic camera is also used by Roads ACT for investigating road maintenance issues. Photo: ACT Government.
“We really want people to know that stormwater drains are only for rainwater,” Dr Wild-River said.
“It doesn’t matter where a stormwater drain is, eventually it’s draining into a waterway – there are no treatment plants for the stormwater system … It’s important for people to realise material in the stormwater system will end up in our lakes and creeks and rivers.”
By and large however, she said Canberra’s beautiful waterways were proof the system was working and people were respecting them.
“We just really encourage people to do their own bit to keep pollution out of the drain.”
Report stormwater pollution to Access Canberra by phoning 13 22 81.
