{"id":437073,"date":"2026-01-27T19:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/437073\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T19:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:37:07","slug":"the-16-month-battle-to-reveal-the-truth-about-sydney-waters-poo-balls-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/437073\/","title":{"rendered":"The 16-month battle to reveal the truth about Sydney Water\u2019s poo balls | Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, after torrential rain in Sydney, fresh poo balls washed up<\/a> on the beach at Malabar, the closest beach to the problematic Malabar sewage treatment plant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Signs were erected on the beach warning people not to touch the \u201cdebris balls\u201d or swim. But authorities didn\u2019t let the wider community know. There were no other warnings issued by Sydney<\/a> Water, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) or the state government.<\/p>\n

Sydney Water has always been slow to take responsibility for the poo balls that closed more than a dozen beaches from October 2024<\/a> to January 2025<\/a>. Questions have also been raised about the NSW EPA\u2019s willingness to share information publicly.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, when the balls initially washed on to Coogee beach, they were referred to as \u201cmystery\u201d tar balls.<\/p>\n

In mid-October, Guardian Australia reported the team of scientists analysing the debris was investigating whether the balls could be linked to sewage<\/a> and whether they could have come from a nearby water treatment plant.<\/p>\n

Sydney Water<\/a> pushed back hard. Its media team attempted to have any reference to the corporation removed from the story.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, it continued to be widely reported that they were tar balls.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia understands the EPA knew the pollutant material was consistent with human-generated waste as early as 25 October 2024.<\/p>\n

But the finding<\/a> that they were mini fatbergs containing human faeces was announced late on Wednesday 6 November \u2013 right when US election results were dominating news headlines. At the time, the source of the balls was still said to be unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cNSW regulator chose to reveal content of Sydney\u2019s mystery beach balls on day of US election,\u201d Guardian Australia reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

The EPA said: \u201cDue to the complex makeup of both organic and inorganic materials, we are unable to definitively pinpoint a source.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Sydney<\/a> Water spokesperson said: \u201cThere have been no issues with the normal operations of the Bondi or Malabar wastewater treatment plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cSydney Water<\/a> acknowledges the tar balls may have absorbed wastewater discharge, which was already present in the water while forming, however, they did not form as a result of our wastewater discharges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mysterious ball-shaped debris washed up on Coogee beach in October 2024. Composite: Randwick City council\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia reported in mid-January 2025 that experts believed Sydney\u2019s deepwater ocean outfalls were to blame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The corporation again insisted its plants were \u201coperating normally\u201d. Sydney Water said it was investigating potential illegal dumping into the wastewater network or stormwater system.<\/p>\n

Map of beaches affected by poo balls<\/a><\/p>\n

In early April 2025, the EPA finally admitted the poo balls<\/a> likely originated from Sydney Water\u2019s land-based sewage treatment network.<\/p>\n

Again, Sydney Water and the EPA did their best to manage the fallout. Sydney Water\u2019s acting executive general manager of water and environment services, Louise Beer, said \u201cit is important to note, all coastal treatment facilities are operating normally, and we are compliant with regulatory standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was only after a five-month freedom of information battle waged by Guardian Australia that the source was finally narrowed down in October 2025. The debris balls were coming from the deepwater ocean outfalls<\/a> \u2013 as multiple experts had suggested.<\/p>\n

But even then, when Guardian Australia had a briefing about the redacted report, Sydney Water and the EPA didn\u2019t reveal they had pinpointed the source even further, to the Malabar outfall specifically.<\/p>\n

That information was only released after Guardian Australia published its story<\/a> on 24 October.<\/p>\n

The oceanographic modelling report, commissioned by Sydney Water, suggested the state-owned corporation could have known as early as 3 February 2025 that the debris balls were likely from its ocean outfalls. That is the date of the \u201cpreliminary draft\u201d. The final report was completed in late May.<\/p>\n

In October 2025, a Sydney Water spokesperson told Guardian Australia: \u201cWe do believe that fat is accumulating somewhere in the system. We know [it\u2019s] in the pipes, definitely, [but] we\u2019re unsure of its whereabouts specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Sydney Water report dated 30 August, obtained by Guardian Australia this month, revealed the exact whereabouts of the fatberg. We reported on 17 January<\/a>: \u201cFatberg the size of four buses likely birthed poo balls that closed Sydney beaches \u2013 and it can\u2019t be cleared\u201d.<\/p>\n

The August 2025 report on the deepwater ocean outfalls handed to the EPA has never been released. But Guardian Australia\u2019s reporting<\/a> reveals how serious and intractable the problem is.<\/p>\n

The report suggests fats, oils and grease had accumulated \u201cin an inaccessible dead zone between the Malabar bulkhead door and the decline tunnel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fixing the problem would require shutting down the outfall \u2013 which reaches 2.3km offshore \u2013 for maintenance and diverting sewage to \u201ccliff face discharge\u201d, which would close Sydney\u2019s beaches \u201cfor months\u201d.<\/p>\n

This has \u201cnever been done\u201d and is \u201cno longer considered an acceptable approach\u201d, the report acknowledges.<\/p>\n

When Guardian Australia asked questions about this report, before publishing the story, Sydney Water and the water minister, Rose Jackson, went into pre-emptive spin mode. They dropped a reheated announcement about spending $3bn on \u201cthe Malabar system investment program\u201d to another media outlet.<\/p>\n

The problem was that the $3bn was not new money. It was not even government money. It was part of Sydney Water\u2019s now $34bn long-term capital and operational plan, which was announced in September 2024 and reported on extensively by Guardian Australia in early 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The document outlines capital spending over the next 10 years, but the works won\u2019t increase the level of sewage treatment at the Malabar, Bondi or North Head plants. Instead, it aims to reduce the load heading down to those coastal facilities.<\/p>\n

Workers cleaning Coogee beach. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts\/AAP<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Ipart \u2013 the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal \u2013 may have crimped that vision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sydney Water initially wanted to increase customers\u2019 bills by 53% over five years, but Ipart has only agreed to a maximum 13.5% in the first year, and 5% a year after that \u2013 including inflation.<\/p>\n

So whether there will be sufficient funds for the massive capital works plan remains unclear. The 2025-26 NSW budget did not include any capital allocations for Sydney Water, noting the Ipart decision would come after the budget was delivered.<\/p>\n

When Jackson reannounced the $3bn Malabar system program, she confirmed that the government had not allocated taxpayer funding.<\/p>\n

Sources say Jackson\u2019s request for government funding to expand Sydney\u2019s desalination plant has been knocked back by the NSW treasurer. That plant is deemed critical to meet Sydney\u2019s future water needs.<\/p>\n

The deepwater ocean outfalls were opened from 1990, mainly because they were the cheapest option<\/a> when it was no longer tenable to discharge sewage at the cliff face. Funding a fix now will take political will \u2013 and some impressive engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, after torrential rain in Sydney, fresh poo balls washed up on the beach at Malabar, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-437073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}