Sydney Water breached its licences

Fairfax Media has revealed Sydney Water breached its licences hundreds of times without prosecution by the EPA.

The state’s environmental watchdog suspended an investigation into complaints about Sydney Water after the head of the government’s water agency complained investigators had been ”heavy-handed”.

A NSW Ombudsman’s report into the actions of the Environment Protection Authority have revealed that, after criticism from Sydney Water, that too many staff had been sent to investigate an odour complaint and that the EPA had more serious things to look at.

The sequence of events could be perceived as evidence that the EPA allowed Sydney Water to influence the terms and manner of the investigation, including who could be interviewed and when, it was said.

Manly residents had complained about the way the EPA had brushed off their complaints about terrible odours coming from Sydney Water’s North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant and said it could not establish beyond reasonable doubt that there had been a breach of Sydney Water’s pollution licence.

The Ombudsman’s report revealed that while the initial investigation had been pulled up, some senior EPA staff believed the investigation had not been excessive and had uncovered evidence that pointed to potential sources of the offensive odour.