[DEBATE] : (Fwd) More on (dead) fishy Durban coverup

[Patrick Bond]

(Lots of shit came in to my 'hood and, via dead fish, down to the yacht 
club in the harbour: "17 million litres of sewage water flowed out of 
the blocked pipe in Seaview during the repair process.")

The Mercury

City refuses to release second probe
Sewage killed fish, says report

February 18, 2008 Edition 1

Tony Carnie

Independent scientists have concluded that a sewage leak into the 
Umhlatuzana River was the main cause of the recent fish kills in Durban 
Harbour.

The findings by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research 
(CSIR) follow repeated denials by municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe that 
raw sewage spills were the primary cause of the massive die-off of fish 
and other marine life just after Christmas Day.

The CSIR report, compiled by researchers Steven Weerts and Shamilla 
Pillay on behalf of the National Ports Authority, contradicts 
Sutcliffe's assertion that a combination of rainfall, industrial 
spillages and other factors played a role in the death of thousands of 
fish in Durban Harbour from December 26 to December 27.

The city is keeping a tight lid on a second report by scientists Prof 
Tickey Forbes and Nicolette Demetriades, from the consultancy group 
Marine and Estuarine Research.

This report, expected to corroborate the CSIR findings, was handed to 
the city last month, but deputy health head Siva Chetty has refused to 
release it to The Mercury, despite repeated requests.

Chetty was appointed by Sutcliffe to deal with all media queries on the 
fish kill, and his refusal to release the report has fuelled suspicions 
of a city hall cover-up or a reluctance to acknowledge sewage management 
problems.

The CSIR scientists do not pinpoint the source of the sewage spillage, 
but state that a significant volume of sewage was reported lost from the 
Queensburgh sewage works in December, and that the decomposition of 
sewage led to severe de-oxygenation of the water and the inability of 
fish to breathe.

They also did water toxicity tests at several points in the harbour and 
the highest toxicity readings were found at the mouth of the Umhlatuzana 
River, which empties into the harbour.

"Therefore, the discharge of sewage into the bay is highly likely to 
have been the primary cause of the fish kill event in late December," 
they reported.

There were, in fact, two fish kills in the harbour in December. The CSIR 
team said the first event, which began on December 21, was most likely 
owing to an accidental or illegal discharge of effluent into the 
Lavender Creek stormwater drains near Wilson's Wharf.

The CSIR team did not collect water samples for anaylsis during the 
first fish kill, and were unable to say whether the effluent leaking 
into the wharf area was toxic.

However, with the second more serious and widespread fish kill, they 
ruled out the possibility that heavy rainfall had flushed a variety of 
pollutants into the bay since no significant rain was recorded for two 
weeks before.

They noted that there was also a "known spill of waste wash water from 
the Ijuba Brewery, and a possible overflow from the Hullett (Sugar) 
wastewater dam" but they had since ruled out these sources as a possible 
primary cause.

They also ruled out a third possibility of a widespread algal bloom 
de-oxygenating the harbour water.

"It is concluded that this kill was a result of the sewage discharge 
into the Umhlatuzana River that eventually flowed into the harbour," he 
said.

Sutcliffe, however, denied there was an attempt to suppress information.

"There is certainly no cover-up. All of these reports will get into the 
public domain."

The city's approach was to gather all the available evidence about the 
fish kill and waste management problems in the city from independent 
scientists and the city's own experts and officials.

Once all this evidence was consolidated, it would be analysed and 
interpreted so that the city could draw up a set of recommendations to 
deal with problem areas.

"So I am not going to respond to each report which comes out, in a 
reactive fashion. Otherwise it becomes a situation of 'another report - 
another comment'.

"We would rather sit down and reach conclusions after analysis, and we 
will ask ourselves whether there are certain things which we can do better."

Sutcliffe remarked that although he had not seen the CSIR report yet, he 
would be surprised to hear emphatic suggestions about a single cause.

q Meanwhile, Durban water and waste department head Neil Macleod has 
sent The Mercury a detailed response to a series of recent articles on 
the health status of Durban's major rivers.

While he disputed the accuracy of some aspects of the reports, Macleod 
acknowledged that river pollution problems "undeniably existed" and he 
welcomed the role of the media in drawing attention to these issues. His 
responses will be published later this week.

***

City sues over blocked sewer

February 18, 2008 Edition 1

Tony Carnie

THE eThekwini Municipality is suing a Durban waste disposal company for 
nearly R1.4 million for allegedly dumping waste in a council pipeline, 
which caused sewage pollution in the Umhlatuzana River.

Neil Macleod, the head of the council's water and sanitation department, 
said at the weekend that summons had been served on Commercial Waste 
Services in Seaview, seeking damages of R1 392 000.

The claim was a result of a council sewer line being blocked with a waxy 
substance "to such an extent that a section of the sewer main had to be 
relaid and sewerage discharged to the (Umhlatuzana) river for a period".

Commercial Waste Services chief executive Dan Naidoo denied the 
allegations and accused Macleod of "barking up the wrong tree in an 
attempt to find a scapegoat for recent fish kills in Durban harbour".

Macleod said some of the recurring sewer blockages in the city were the 
result of industry and smaller commercial companies dumping solid or 
hazardous waste into sewers and storm water drains.

It was not clear whether the city was suing Naidoo's company for a 
prolonged blockage, which happened in March last year, or for a blockage 
of the same line in January.

However, according to a report from the city's waste water network 
chief, P B Davis, the sewer became blocked with a waxy substance in 
March last year and waste water staff were unable to clear it with 
conventional jetting equipment. Eventually a hole was cut in the blocked 
line, directly above the Umhlatuzana River, to prevent sewage backing up 
and flooding the premises of a nearby shoe factory.

As a result, sewage was also diverted into a storm water drain from 
March to August 2007.

The Davis report suggests that about 17 million litres of sewage water 
flowed out of the blocked pipe in Seaview during the repair process.

His report also referred to a separate blockage at a measuring flume in 
the Queensburgh industrial area around December 24 last year.

"This was caused by a long cable that had found its way into the sewer, 
through an act of vandalism. It is estimated that the sewer overflowed 
for about five days, and it was attended to as soon as it was reported, 
and cleared the same day."

Naidoo said yesterday that he had not received a summons.

"This is news to me, but it seems to me that Mike Sutcliffe and Neil 
Macleod are looking for a scapegoat. I run a professional undertaking 
and my company is open to scrutiny from any party. I welcome this legal 
challenge from the eThekwini Muncipality because I have nothing to hide 
and there is no evidence whatsoever pointing to us blocking that sewer."

Naidoo said his company dealt mainly with solid wastes and waste oils, 
and that he had a letter from eThekwini officials exonerating his 
company from blocking the sewer.

"I do not deal in waste wax or resinous material and it seems to me that 
we are being blamed simply because we are in the waste industry," he said.