A giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.
Sydney Water isn’t sure exactly how big the fatberg is because it can’t easily access where it has accumulated.
Fixing the problem would require shutting down the outfall – which reaches 2.3km offshore – for maintenance and diverting sewage to “cliff face discharge”, which would close Sydney’s beaches “for months”, a secret report obtained by Guardian Australia states.
“The working hypothesis is FOG [fats, oils and grease] accumulation in an inaccessible dead zone between the Malabar bulkhead door and the decline tunnel has potentially led to sloughing events, releasing debris balls,” the report concludes.
“This chamber was not designed for routine maintenance and can only be accessed by taking the DOOF offline and diverting effluent to the cliff face for an extended period (months), which would close Sydney beaches.”
oh my what did I even read
An article about your mom.
HAH!
You got that poo ball.
FatbergBirthingPooBalls is actually a fantastic username.
You would think so, wouldn’t you.
I literally just said so.
did…did you pick your name from any article that we can…uh…read? Nvm…
How can you design a system and think that not allowing any maintenance of this section is a good idea?!
Trump loves having big things named after him.
Kinda like the garbage dump named Mt. Cleese in honour of John Cleese.
I would support naming awful things after Trump, but I want to forget about that fucker as quickly as possible.
The year has only started, but Anne Davies is already the lead contender and favourite for 2026’s best article headline.
The year went to shit surprisingly early
Just wait until a luxury cruise liner hits it and and gets shit everywhere then they might clean it up.
Like Titanic except they will wish that the ship went down when they are covered in literal months old rancid fat.
A modern western city that dumps fucking raw sewage directly into the ocean. Embarrassing.
Yeah. We are an arrogant, fucked up species.
Unlike most cities, Sydney only does primary treatment of its sewage – straining out the solids. Elsewhere, secondary treatment uses settlement tanks and disinfection techniques before releasing the wastewater or recycling it.
Singapore, for example, treats its sewage to such a high level that it can be reused in the drinking water system.
Singapore
Nice that the article is trying to make it sound like such solutions are from ‘other countries’
Meanwhile, we have full treatment in South Australia and the outflow water is used for watering gardens.
I did a sewage treatment plant tour in my high school biology class. At the end of the second stage filtration, the worker pointed at how it discharges into the ocean.
“So at this point, the water has been treated enough that it’s safe to drink”
We all scrunched our faces at that. Then he added
“But I wouldn’t”
You really should not.
Waste water treatment, in order to reach human consumption grade, undergoes several stages of treatment.
- preliminary
Removes solids, largely unsoluble, be it organic or inorganic
- primary
Forced oxygenization, to activate micro organism capable of digesting the organic matter present. This stage is the most crucial for the entire process.
- secondary
Waters are allowed to settle, in order to separate solids, now highly rich organic mud, from the water, in large pools or tanks, that are continually fed. Entering water displaces already clarified and mostly depleted of oxygen water, which can safely be returned to nature.
- terciary
Previously clarified water undergoes UV treatment and/or has added minute quantities of sodium hypochlorite, for disinfection purposes. Microfiltering can be added subsequently.
This water is safe for use in street cleaning, irrigation, industrial uses, fire fighting, etc.
- quarternary
Obligatory microfiltering, followed by reverse osmosis process, to remove heavy metals and trace chemicals, followed by filtering through activated charcoal filters. Mineral (sand and rock) filters are then used to give back minerals to the water, to give it an organoleptic profile.
Stabilization of pH and final clarification can be done, before being reintroduced to the supply network.
The whole world should be doing it this way simply because if fresh water sources are being used for potable water, it’s likely that same source is being used to to discard the so-called treated sewage water … which is then taken up and distributed as potable water (with disenfectants added).
Thing is if you don’t use the reverse osmosis stage your community is drinking water that is contaminated with every drug (legal and illegal) that people have peed out.
Studies have shown fish in the Great Lakes - which are used both for returned treated sewage and drinking water - are being affected by some of those drugs (especially the ones that affect hormones).
You would be amazed how often “the solution to pollution is dilution”. Can’t dump that raw chemical into the water/sewer, oh no. But if you dilute it with 5000 gallons of water? Oh well now it’s at “acceptable levels”. Notice how most regulations talk about “parts per million”(PPM). Well, it turns out that when most of your regulations are written such that you only have to “properly dispose” of something if it’s above a certain concentration, you can just dilute it below that level and BAM, “safe to dispose of”.
“It’s outside the environment”
There’s nothing out there
this is much more common than you think
I’m hoping it’s not RAW sewage
It is. Sydney only does “primary treatment” which is literally running it through a strainer to separate the big chunks, and then they just dump it.
JPEG sewage
This compression is shit.
I wouldn’t want it cooked as well
Fixing the problem would require shutting down the outfall – which reaches 2.3km offshore – for maintenance and diverting sewage to “cliff face discharge”, which would close Sydney’s beaches “for months”
“Cleaning up the massive rancid fat lump on the beach would be too much work, so we’re just not gonna. It would inconvenience beach goers.”
That’s not quite it. The wastewater treatment plant is located high up on the cliffs above the ocean. It has a big pipe that they tunneled through bedrock so it discharges at the bottom of the ocean 2.3km from shore. The fatberg is in the junction between the plant and the pipe. To clean it out, they’d have to stop using the big drain pipe, and y’know, just dump sewage off the edge of the cliff into the ocean, pretty much right onto the beach.
Oh, I got the impression it was just… Floating there right out in the ocean.
How the fuck is this not an engineering problem they must have foreseen? I mean now what, the pipes just stay clogged? What a literal shitfest.
IKR? The need for maintenance eventually should be foreseen! If they went to all the trouble to put a pipe through bedrock, why not put 2 pipes, so there’s a backup?
The need for maintenance is forseen, but it’s generally deferred. There was probably a plan to do something every year or two, but they weren’t willing to shut the beach down for a week or so. A second pipe would be absurdly expensive.
I want to hear FriendlyJordies take on this. I bet it’s going to end up being a case of low bid mafia-connected contractors building the damn thing.
Jaws but with a fatberg instead of a shark
Makes me think, maybe we could weigh it down so it falls to the bottom of the sea, and then all those weird eels and bizarro sharks would munch it up. The recycle of life.
“Titanic and The Aquatic Mountain of Lard”
Maybe they can mine it…and turn it into luxury soap…that’s what I learned from survival games at least.
OOOO I’ll save this in my bag for later
I like your drive! …So I looked it up. First off, you can’t. Because that’s not a thing that is done. Second off, you can’t. Because it isn’t yours to keep. Even if you wanted to and offered to take care of it, it’s a maritime thing and technically it belongs to the state. Let me break it down for you with this imaginary, but realistic, exchange:
“We are not going to remove the rancid fat berg. It’s too expensive.”
“Oh. Ok. Can I take it?”
“NO! IT’S MINE!”
The state of the planet:
Since olden 4chan (rip) days Australians have always been top of the heap when it came to shit posting. If anyone could make a giant poopy fatberg it’s them.
“First wold” problems. lol
