IN THE two SCS’s planned for The Esplanade extending from Batman Street to Zephyr Court, BCSC claims in its concept plans there are “Community Benefits of the project to people in the broader community.”
One of the benefits of the project BCSC claims in its concept plans is “...improvements in surface and stormwater quality discharging to the existing drainage outfalls.”
At present, all drainage from these sections of road flows unfiltered through outfall drains directly onto the beaches of Sunderland Bay and thus, eventually into the ocean. BCSC’s concept plans state that drainage from these projects will continue unchanged via the “existing drainage outfalls.”
So how can council claim a benefit if nothing is being changed to improve or filter the outfalls? In fact, studies show that bitumen and asphalt roads are responsible for their own unique pollutants. These pollutants are comprised of things such as tyre particles (theconversation.com/one-of-the-biggest-microplastic-pollution-sources-isnt-straws-or-grocery-bags-its-your-tires-259440), fuel and oil and other vehicle fluids leakage or spills, cleaning products, paint, road composition fragments, road material fluid/chemical contaminant leeching, as well as sediment and herbicide catchment which can contain heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and mercury which have shown to be carcinogenic and hormone disrupting to aquatic life.
In their desperation to have road and drainage upgrades, I suspect BCSC and scheme proponents may choose to ignore and/or reject the suggestion that surfaced roads produce their own form of pollutants and contaminants. So be it.
However, the fact remains, that without upgrades to the existing outfall infrastructure there will be no change made to the function of outflows to reduce or improve the flow of waste and water-born pollutants onto our beautiful beaches.
How then can BCSC make the claim that these two projects will be of any benefit to the community by improving the quality of water discharging to the beach outfalls?
Ross Bencraft, Surf Beach
