Officials of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) are carrying out remediation efforts at Montagu Park after a sewer pipe broke in the area.

WSC Health and Safety Manager, Arlington Bethel explained what happened at the Park to ZNS News on Monday.  He said, “on Friday January 3rd we received reports that we had an overflow of sewer that impacted  the Montagu Foreshore here.  We came of that night, we put some caution tape around the entire area to prevent this public from accessing the area.  We contacted the Environmental Planning and Protection Agency, Dr. Rhianna Neely.  She sent out a representative that night and they made a decision to close off the area from the general public.  That decision was in large part because this is a recreational area and they didn’t want anybody being impacted with the hazards that was present.”

Bethel said the problem was caused by a corroded ductile iron pipe that ruptured.  “Now that we have done the initial repair we’ve conducted further assessment and we’ve made the decision to remove all of the ductile iron because we are concerned that we may have a repeat of this event if we don’t do so.  So it would be remiss if we did not change those and we decided to make those changes.  So the upcoming days we will continue, everyday, to make those repairs until the work is completed and that is based on good weather.  As long as we have good weather those repairs would be on schedule.”

The Health and Safety Manager advised members of the public visiting the area to heed the notices.  “The area remains closed and once we have satisfied the requirements set out to us by the Environmental Planning and Protection Department they will make a decision to open it.  But in the main time we would advise the general public to remain away from this area until further notice.”