HE MIGHT have misspelt it, but Ron Stubb certainly got his feelings of fury off his chest when he rammed his hand-painted protest sign – “Sewerage spill” – into the sand at Bonza Bay beach yesterday.
The 63-year-old Beacon Bay resident, said watching kids frolicking in the shallow, warm little Boza river , while he knew it was full of faeces, had irked him for three years.
Yesterday, when he saw the sewer that runs past his Beacon Bay garden overflowing for the third time this month, something blew in his head.
He grabbed a signage board, opened a can of red paint, stuck his finger in, daubed his message, drove to the beach and shoved it in .
He chuckled when it was pointed out that “sewer” is the pipe and “sewage” is the poop, saying: “I used the American spelling!”
Nonetheless, he said: “It felt good hey! I got rid of some of my rage.”
Stubbs acknowledged that BCM reaction time had improved, going from days in the past, to no more than two hours, even after hours now, “which is pretty good”.
He had seen and been told that the metal line was old and decaying, and that although BCM had patched and replaced sections and built berms, the ground was sinking and the line was developing kinks leading to blockages.
There were numerous sewers in BCM, he said, where homeowners and builders led water from roof gutters and storm drains into them, causing the pressure to build up when it rained.
A grandfather himself, Stubbs said: “It bugs me when the little kids come here on holiday.
“They see nice water coming out of the bush and think it’s safe so they play in it, splashing and building sand castles. But it’s sewage! It’s terrible.”
Buffalo City Metro has announced a range of upgrades to sewage treatment works, and in the case of Nahoon, says it has three inspectors policing property owners and builders who illegally connect storm drains to municipal sewers.
Greg Brett, a marine and estuarine specialist at the East London Museum, said of the spillages: “It is people in this town who throw rubbish into toilets and run their storm drains into sewers, who are the problem.”
A check on the beach where the Boza flows to sea revealed evidence of the familiar BCM beach cocktail – empty condom packets, ear buds, bottle caps and foamy brown stuff. —
Sewer rage could help kids
The 63-year-old Beacon Bay resident, said watching kids frolicking in the shallow, warm little Boza river , while he knew it was full of faeces, had irked him for three years.
Yesterday, when he saw the sewer that runs past his Beacon Bay garden overflowing for the third time this month, something blew in his head.
He grabbed a signage board, opened a can of red paint, stuck his finger in, daubed his message, drove to the beach and shoved it in .
He chuckled when it was pointed out that “sewer” is the pipe and “sewage” is the poop, saying: “I used the American spelling!”
Nonetheless, he said: “It felt good hey! I got rid of some of my rage.”
Stubbs acknowledged that BCM reaction time had improved, going from days in the past, to no more than two hours, even after hours now, “which is pretty good”.
He had seen and been told that the metal line was old and decaying, and that although BCM had patched and replaced sections and built berms, the ground was sinking and the line was developing kinks leading to blockages.
There were numerous sewers in BCM, he said, where homeowners and builders led water from roof gutters and storm drains into them, causing the pressure to build up when it rained.
A grandfather himself, Stubbs said: “It bugs me when the little kids come here on holiday.
“They see nice water coming out of the bush and think it’s safe so they play in it, splashing and building sand castles. But it’s sewage! It’s terrible.”
Buffalo City Metro has announced a range of upgrades to sewage treatment works, and in the case of Nahoon, says it has three inspectors policing property owners and builders who illegally connect storm drains to municipal sewers.
Greg Brett, a marine and estuarine specialist at the East London Museum, said of the spillages: “It is people in this town who throw rubbish into toilets and run their storm drains into sewers, who are the problem.”
A check on the beach where the Boza flows to sea revealed evidence of the familiar BCM beach cocktail – empty condom packets, ear buds, bottle caps and foamy brown stuff. —
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