BELMONT OUTFALL

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Monitoring Results

Indicator Bacteria

Water quality monitoring of faecal coliform bacteria indicate that levels are within the guidelines for primary contact recreation and protection of human consumers of seafood (MHL769 1997).

Biological Communities

Found that sewage effluent:

• enriched the soft bottom benthic community at that sites adjacent to the (shoreline) outfall in terms of species and the number of individuals.

• enriched fish populations when compared to areas remote from the outfall.

• enriched sandy beach faunal communities in terms of the number of individuals with a change in community structure favoring deposit feeders.

General findings (not necessarily related to the outfalls):

• concentrations of contaminants (heavy metals and pesticides) in demersal fish caught at Belmont Beach were in the same order as in fish caught in an unpolluted area and significantly less than the NHMRC guidelines.

Methods:

Phytoplankton (chlorophyll-a concentrations only - off Boulder Bay, Burwood Beach, Belmont Beach and First Point); zooplankton (off Boulder Bay, Burwood Beach, Belmont Beach and First Point); rocky bottom benthos (First Point, Little Beach Burwood Beach and Boulder Bay); rocky shore ecology (First Point, Little Cove and Little Beach); Soft bottom benthos (Belmont Beach, Burwood Beach, Stockton Beach, Dudley Beach, Merewether Beach, McMasters Beach and Avoca Beach); sandy beach fauna (Belmont Beach, Burwood Beach, Dudley Beach, McMasters Beach and Avoca Beach); fish communities (using otter trawls – Burwood Beach, Belmont Beach and McMasters Beach); and contaminants in fish (McMasters Beach and First Point) were investigated.  

General findings (not necessarily related to outfall):

• data presentation only

Methods:

Laxton and Laxton (1986) carried out studies of the water column, water chemistry, pelagic biology and benthic communities of sedimentary and rocky bottoms and commenced in January 1985. For the soft bottom community studies at Belmont Beach, sampling sites in 10m of water just off the beach were selected. Three sites were selected adjacent to the (shoreline) outfall, each separated by around 100m. The control area was located about 3 km south of the outfall on Belmont Beach. Samples of the sediment were taken using a diver operated device which consisted of an aluminium box (200 X 200 X 100 mm). [Sampling of soft bottom benthos also occurred at Stockton Beach, Burwood Beach, Belmont Beach and Corlette].

Water quality studies were located as close to each outfall as possible and at a location seaward of the outfall (approximately 2km). Control stations, both an inshore and an offshore site, were located at the far northern and far southern ends of the study area (between Port Stephens and Catherine Hill Bay).

General findings (not necessarily related to outfall):

• The benthos in 10 m of water off Belmont Beach was affected by periods of heavy swell.

• It was composed of small crustaceans, polychaete worms and molluscs, which lived buried in the sand.

• There were also large bivalves (Austromactra sp. and Donax deltoides) living in the area.

• On occasions, large aggregations (comprised of many millions of individuals) of the small gastropod Bankivia fasciata were seen living on the surface of the sand. There were no consistent differences between numbers or densities of species living at the control and experimental (outfall) sites.

• Heavy metal concentrations in sediments (collected in July 1990) from Belmont Beach were low and there was no significant difference between control and experimental sites (Laxton and Duell 1990).  

General Findings (not necessarily related to the outfall):

• elevated concentrations of contaminants were found in fish collected in the Newcastle area.

General Findings (not necessarily related to the outfall):

• of the 17 organochlorines tested, only three (technical chlordane, DDE and DDD) were detected in deployed oysters. However, because of the low frequency of detection no impact versus control comparisons could be made.

• trace metal concentrations in oysters were within or below the range of concentrations found in oysters deployed offshore of Sydney and naturally occurring in other estuarine areas of NSW.

• trace metal concentrations in sediments were comparable to concentrations found in Sydney.

• All mean trace level concentrations were below the concentrations considered to have the potential for adverse biological effects.

Methods:

For the first two years oysters (Crassostrea commercialis) were deployed at potential contaminant sites (including the outfall sites of Boulder Bay, Burwood Beach and Belmont Beach) and at a number of control sites. Retrieval of oysters occurred twice a year at which time sediment samples were also collected by divers using corers. These samples were analysed for organochlorine and trace metal levels.

Belmont Beach

Faecal Coliform

Outfall Site

Belmont 

(Belm_7) Last updated May 2000