Residents of a western Sydney suburb have been baffled by the vivid colour their local creek after it mysteriously turned neon blue.
“There’s something causing it, we’d like to know what and who has caused that problem,” John Hibbard of the Friends of Toongabbie Creek told Channel 9.
Now the grim reason it turned bright turquoise has been discovered.
Toongabbie Creek flows through the north of the suburb it is named after, close to Westmead. It’s home to eels, turtles and fish while birds nest and feed along its bushland banks.
A few days ago, locals notice that the usually clear waterway had turned a neon teal colour with the hue beginning where the creek was joined by two others.
As it flowed toward the Parramatta River the turquoise colour only got more striking.
There were concerns that the change in colour was part of a wider issue that could harm wildlife.
Staff from the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspected the creek on Tuesday but a wrinkle in finding a solution was that while the most affected part of the creek is within the boundaries of Parramatta City Council, factories and warehouses that may have caused the pollution were located on parts of the waterway in the neighbouring Blacktown local government area.
“It’s highlighting that there is no monitoring of this very important spring,” said Mr Hibbard.
On Tuesday, the EPA said it has located the suspected source of the contamination which was indeed in a tributary located in the Blacktown Council area.
According to Channel 7, the EPA issued a clean-up order to a firm called DGL Manufacturing based in a large industrial area in Seven Hills on the banks of Toongabbie Creek.
On its website, DGL states it formulated chemicals, warehouses and distributed them. Its Seven Hills location is a chemical manufacturing plant which provides water treatment products.
“We respect the importance of ethical practice,” states DGL.
“We … fulfil our responsibility to facilitate clean land and water for the communities in which we operate and serve,” it adds.
However the EPA said that an unannounced visit to DGL meant that it was “reasonably suspected” to be where the containment had originated.
“Officers located blue coloured liquid in containers with some labelled waste dye at the company’s premises,” a NSW EPA spokesman told Channel 7.
There was also blue liquid in the drains of the warehouse and in containers on site.
“The creek is now mostly clear,” the EPA said but added that some parts with slowly flowing water could take longer to clear.
“If the community sees blue coloured water, they should avoid this area while we are waiting for test results.”
