Pumping Station? Macgregor odours

Parkwood eggs (Pace Farms) most likely. They are the big bunch of buildings right on the border on parkwood road. Thousands of chooks just a few hundred meters from the newer areas. I live in the nearby area of Dunlop, and we would usually have around four days during summer when the smell is obvious…

Those new areas seem miles from an arterial road…

I wouldn’t even consider purchasing if I wasn’t allowed in to see the land!

I very much doubt there is a pump station in Macgregor seeing as its all downhill to the poo plant.
And who could have ever thought there would be problems building a suburb in a buffer zone for major electricity and sewer infrastructure?

This must come as a real surprise to those northsiders who think their sh!t doesn’t stink.

screaming banshee said :

Oh, and the northside smells rosy…incase you were wondering.

Am I going completely mad? You are about to spend a Brazilian dollars on a house and land but it’s “strictly forbidden” for you to look at what you’re purchasing?

Surely this can’t be so.

I work in sewer systems (not for ACTEW but an interstate water company) and all I can recommend is you call them and register a odour complaint.

Sewer Pump Stations (or SPSs) can often have associated odours for different reasons:

– The Pump not turning on often enough, leaving sewage sitting still too long.
– Flows being too turbulent entering the station, mixing the sewage and releasing the gas
– People upstream dumping items in the sewer other than typical sewerage.

Often this is too hard to fix, so they put in vent stacks to get it above the height people will smell it at.

Your area would be close the the end of the sewer system, as sewage is discharged to the large treatment plant just south-west of Holt. The smells could be coming through the pipes from anywhere in Canberra…

I advise asking to speak to somebody at ACTEW about the issue, as they wont put detailed info of whats there on the web because operational details are constantly changing, and broadcasting the specs of the sewer publicly would provide possible info for planning a terrorist attack on infrastructure.

They are vent pipes as well as vortex drops for the sewer.
What is a vortex drop? If the sewer level drops by a few meters say, instead of “stepping” the sewer down with “jump ups” they have a cylinder type drop pipe where the water is flicked by a lip edge on the pipe. The water starts spinning and sticks to the sides of the pipe by vortex, just like the gravatron ride at the show. If the water was just allowed to fall down the drop it would undermine the bedding at the bottom. Due to the levels betewen the sewer treatment plant and the level of the land in Macgregor there are a few in the area.
The height of the vent should be higher than any surrounding houses so the smell goes over the top of your house and not in the windows. As there is developement in the area now I wonder if the vent stacks are high enough? Does the height need to be raised now there are houses in the area?
These vent are constantly emitting lovely smells into the air. The potency can vary depending on the strength and direction of the wind. If you cant smell it just hope the wind doesn’t change.
PS: Welcome to the neighbourhood.

Wow I never knew that you were not allowed to go and “checkout” the land that a house you are wanting to purchase as a package. How strange, and there is a sewer works down Stockdill drive but I am pretty sure that it is a far way away from the said new development. I can only suggest that you maybe go and ask the residence of other houses that are already established if they have had the odour around all the time.

He means the sewage treatment plant. Lovely odor.

Google Lower Molongolo Water Quality Control Centre.

When it was built it was expected to handle the sewage for about 200k people, and land was set aside for the existing design to be duplicated twice (I.e: treating the effluent from 600k people).

Of course subsequent governments have decided that upgrading the plant will cost too much, so they resort to pooling the shit in a dam while the processing plant works through it as fast as it can.

I think you’ll also find that you live nearby the Belconnen tip and the Parkwood egg farm. You may get smells from both when the wind blows the right way.

Here’s a clue….drive past the entrance to the Magpies Golf Course, to the bottom of Stockdill Dr.
You will soon understand what is being pumped & vented!