Please don’t put paint or other chemicals down your outside drains!
On Saturday 21 September, we had numerous calls from the community about a white paint-like discharge flowing into Poutama Creek in Berryfields in Richmond. We want to thank everyone who called this discharge in to us.
Our environmental compliance team were called to investigate straight away. Their job is to track down the source of the contamination, so we can try and stop this from happening.
This time, unfortunately as the flow had stopped by the time the team arrived, they were unable to find the source of the discharge. They have however narrowed down the area where it originated to the stormwater catchment area of 23 – 41 Oakdale Grove, 19 – 43 Camberley Road, Bedfont Street down to Fairmile Road, Chertsey Road down to Fairmile Road, and Drayton Street down to Upton Lane.
If you know someone in this area who was painting on this date, please let us know, or at least let them know that they shouldn’t put paint down their outside drains as it pollutes our waterways.
Our streams are home to hundreds of creatures living in a diverse range of ecosystems. Contaminants like paint, detergent, household pesticides and garden sprays can poison fish, eels and in some instances dogs that have contact with our waterways.
Outside drains capturing water from roofs and concrete flow to our waterways, estuaries and beaches and should only have clean water entering them.
Any water containing paint needs to be disposed of onto grass or well diluted and tipped into the sewage system via your laundry or the toilet. Inside drains flow to the sewage system.
If you see anything like this in future, please call it in to us straight away on 03 543 8400 so we can send our environmental compliance team out to investigate it immediately. The quicker we know about these things, the faster we can react, and the higher the chances are that we catch the person responsible.