Noosa Council will take action to redirect the flow of Burgess Creek at its mouth at Sunrise Beach after residents raised concerns the changed path was eroding sand dunes back to about 70m from David Low Way and forcing people to walk across potentially contaminated water.
Noosa chief executive officer Scott Waters said Council’s infrastructure and environment teams would shortly start remediation work at the mouth of Burgess Creek, which had been delayed as council staff prioritised flood-damage emergent work.
Sunrise Beach resident Bruce Stitz, who was one of a number of residents to raise the alarm, said he understood council staff had been busy with flood affected areas but anticipated the work would take just a few hours with a grader to rectify.
The long term resident said the erosion created by the changed course and its possible impact on David Low Way, if not addressed, was of major concern to him, as well as its impact on the environment.
“Many tonnes of sand have been eroded from the frontal dunes near the new mouth, far more than occurred during the heavy seas we experienced in the last few months,“ he said.
Bruce, who is a regular beach goer with his dog, said he now avoided Entrance 38.
“Any beachgoer using Entrance 38 has no choice but to cross the waters of this creek whether going north or south along the beach,“ he said.
“Council signs warn that this creek is not for swimming and its waters are not for human consumption.
“Surely this has the real possibility of having a detrimental outcome for the people who have no choice but to wade through this creek.“
Mr Waters said with the weather starting to settle and westerly winds providing natural sand replenishment, council staff were securing the necessary equipment to undertake the standard redirection of the creek and build up the batters at the mouth as best as possible.
Mr Waters said council’s proposed actions had been discussed with members of the Eastern Beaches Progress Association and, while Unitywater was responsible for the treated effluent that flows into the creek from the Noosa Sewage Treatment Plant, samples taken by Council’s Environmental health officers, showed the water quality within the creek system were within acceptable levels.
“The discolouration of the creek flow is as a result of the inflows from the catchment wetland system and are naturally occurring tannins,“ he said.
“Our advice is that the discolouration will continue until the inflow from the catchments begin to normalise, which we have been told could be many months away.”
Unitywater executive manager customer delivery Rhett Duncan said Unitywater’s Noosa Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) treated sewage from the broader Noosa community and released treated effluent to Burgess Creek, 3km upstream of the creek mouth.
“The effluent is of a very high standard and is Class A recycled water. It is completely safe to return to our waterways and this process is part of the modern water cycle,“ he said.
“When effluent is released from the STP 3km upstream of the creek mouth, it is safe for direct contact and poses no safety concerns. However, we know that other sources flow into the creek downstream of the STP, including old landfills, nightsoil trenches and stormwater run-off and we encourage the community to make their own decisions based on this and the signage that is in place.
“We would like to reassure the community that all of Unitywater’s operations, including where our outfalls are, are strictly monitored and approved by DES.“
Council has provided a detailed summary of the work at Burgess Creek on its website.
