THE NATIONAL OUTFALL DATABASE COMMUNITY REPORT

28/6/2017

The National outfall database community report

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For the first time Australia now has a publicly accessible outfall database, developed by the Clean Ocean Foundation in collaboration with the States and Northern Territory and supported by the National Environmental Science Programme - Marine Biodiversity Hub. The goal of NOD is to facilitate cross-institutional data sharing among federal, state, local government and the community to integrate infrastructure planning and decision making of sewage effluent impacts on marine environment.

The volume of effluent
discharged annually into
the Australian aquatic environment

Gigalitres

On the Australian Shoreline, of these, 114 discharge into coastal waters and 67 into estuarine environments

Outfalls

No.of bathtubs of
effluent for every
Australian

Bathtubs

Outfalls in this summary are defined as a discharge point or outlet of sewage effluent into a body of water including rivers, seas, and estuaries.

THE N.O.D PROJECT SEEKS TO:

Develop a publicly accessible national outfall database to rank outfalls (and sewerage treatment systems) by relative pollutant impacts.
Enhance communication between government, water authorities, and communities.
Use citizen science to assist with understanding pressures on the marine environment and health impacts on recreational users.

CoMMUNITY BENEFIT

Communities will become informed of the potential water quality impacts of sewage outfalls and have the opportunity to be proactive stewards of the marine environment.
Water Authorities will benefit from further engaging with their community. The NOD will improve shared understanding of current sewerage infrastructure, its benefit in treating sewage, and inform community expectations.
Pressures on the marine environment can be reduced through nationally consistent and comparable scientific information on the quality of sewage discharged by outfall. Policy makers can use this data to prioritize decisions on sewerage system development and outfall reform.
Water treatment suppliers and recycled water users will have access to detailed information on the location as well as composition of sewage for recycling purposes, useful for industrial, agricultural, and/or residential development

* Coastal outfalls
** The load calculation is based on annual averages of total nitrogen and phosphorus and the annual sum of total outfall volume in data reported (%) 2015.
*** NT data awaiting validation

FUTURE RESEARCH

Estimating total pollution loads from outfalls – by working with researchers, such as SewAus – University of Queensland.
How recreational users receive notification of pollution events in different regions of coastal Australia.
Impact of pollution on coastline pilot programs in:
Gold Coast – impact on mangroves
North Sydney – impact on recreational users of bypass events at Warriewood
Recreational activities research occurring near outfalls and related issues through online survey. Participation available through nod.org.au or cleanocean.org
Engaging coastal communities interested in researching the impact of outfalls on their marine environment.

General Enquiries

Data Enquiries

Community Monitoring Enquiries