Albert River sewage spill investigation

The City of Gold Coast is under investigation following a significant sewage spill from a council pipe transporting sewage to a nearby sewage treatment plant.

Up to 450 million litres of sewage is believed to have spilled into the Albert River between 12 January and 12 April 2024.

On 9 April 2024, council notified the department about the spill.

On 12 April 2024, council advised DESI the spill was far greater than originally reported and may have occurred continually for far longer than first reported and at a volume up to 5 megalitres (ML) each day.

The department is examining the extent of environmental harm to the Albert and Logan Rivers caused by spill, the notifications of the health and environmental risks and council’s culpability in the overall management of their sewage collection network.

As part of their environmental obligations, utility providers must have systems in place to detect and correct sewage leaks.

Water quality monitoring

DESI undertakes routine water quality monitoring in the Albert River eight times a year on behalf of Healthy Land and Water, under the Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program. The Healthy Land and Water Report Card data is available by visiting the Interactive data dashboard. Data for the Albert River EHMP is available by visiting the Interactive data dashboards and selecting “WaterNav – Estaurine/Marine” and then selecting “Albert River”.

This program monitors a standard suite of water quality indicators for ecological assessment that provides limited information about the extent that pollutants are actually impacting on waterway flora and fauna.

This testing underpins the South East Queensland Healthy Waterways Report Card, which builds community awareness of long-term waterway conditions, pressures, actions and social benefits.

While it was never intended to be an alert system for sewage infrastructure failure, the long term data for the Albert and Logan Rivers will be analysed as part of the department’s investigation.

What’s next?

The department will assess council’s sewage network infrastructure maintenance and management program to determine whether council is adequately managing and maintaining its ageing assets. An investigation of this scale will take some time.

This could result in enforcement action against the council, including statutory notices and prosecution.

Community health

The City of Gold Coast is responsible for community health information related to this incident. Visit the council’s website for more information or to contact them with concerns or questions.

Reporting pollution

Reports about significant pollution incidents can be made to the department via the Pollution Hotline.