Lake Burley Sewer

The sewers are the network of pipes that waste flows through.
These pipes are sewerage.
Sewage is the waste that flows through the sewerage.

But, thanks to popular ignorance of basic language, most people get it wrong and write to newspapers\tell the complaints line about the smell of raw sewerage in their area.
Pipes don’t smell.

has been happening for years. Everytime it overflows.

My understanding was that sewage and sewerage are one and the same – simply alternate spellings. No?

*only* 1.5 eh? Well is 1.5 capable of generating the e.coli counts the NCA is claiming? Or are those other sources you mentioned likely contributors?

Ant: downstream leaching from cemetries can be a problem, even without the bodies themselves floating off!

Pangallo was on 666 this morning claiming that *only* 1.5 cubic metres of raw sewage (note folks that’s sewage not sewerage) that ended up in the river and that was two weeks ago.

But then the NCA is claiming E.coli counts of some 10,000ppm as opposed to a normal 150-odd.

So who’s spin do we believe?

It’s disappointing that in an era of SCADA monitoring systems and the like that such a fault could go undetected, and that the end result is pumping to the river rather than some sort of holding pondage. Qbyn Council need to do some work on theuir failsafes methinks.

And where’s Professor Collingnon on the issue?

But then maybe the closing of the lake is a good thing in that it helps focus everyone’s attention of the cumulative contributors to the lake’s health – those mentioned above, plus Fyshwick and CBD run-off, and of course septic tank leaching from upstream.

I remember there wsa a flood (when we used to have those) and it flooded the Qbn cemetery and liberated some dead bodies which went floating off in the direction of Canberra. Everyone was horrified!

So the Queanbeyan brown trout are migrating again?

Like this does not happen every so often.

I spent five years doing triathlons and have swum many races in the lake. The water doesn’t quite match the purity of Kona, but I’ve never had any problems with it.

I’ve never considered swimming in any of the lakes. It’s sheer madness to even contemplate doing so. Even a few drops of the water on ones skin can prove fatal, or cause serious mental abnormalities. And that’s with or without this latest pollution. It amazes me that nobody has caught a 3-eyed red-fin in all this time :S

There was an amusingly-written article in the CT a few weeks back about how the lake was high in “faeces”. The writer didn’t use the usual terms faecal contamination or faecal matter, no she just said “faeces” right through, which made the article very funny reading.

Back in the big drought of 82, we put kayaks in the Molonglo at Oaks Estate, and paddled down. the water was so low we had to carry the kayaks over many parts of the river, but also things were revealed. Quite a few stinking sewerage pipes, one evidently from harman? and the other obviously from the abbatoir. Duntroon also had a contribution.

I’ve never swum in Lake BG since that jaunt.

I see one of the outdoor suppliers is offering free kayak trials at Yarralumla today!
Don’t fall in…

As for shutting down the fountain, if the wind was the right way, wouldn’t it be a good way to fertilise Commonwealth Park?