Issue 17 December 2001
Taking up the cudgels: Gerard Healy at Gunnamatta Beach. "Melbourne Water should not be aiming for anything other than 100 per cent recycling."
Determination and commitment, together with healthy lashings of ability, enabled Gerard Healy to win the most coveted individual award in football, the Brownlow Medal.
Now he is applying the same resolve to another matter close to his heart - protecting the marine environment.
Melbourne Water discharges treated effluent from its Eastern Treatment Plant at Bangholme into Bass Strait at Boags Rocks, alongside St Andrews and Gunnamatta beaches on the Mornington Peninsula.
Mr Healy has surfed in the area for 25 years, and says Gunnamatta has some of the best waves on the coast. He is a long-time St Andrews resident and has property interests at Cape Schanck.
He has challenged Melbourne Water over the outfall on his Sports Today radio program on 3AW, and is now bracing himself for more crash-tackling.
"If people think that extending the pipe is going to make this issue go away, their thinking is as short-sighted as the politicians of yesteryear," he says. "Surely we're more enlightened than that now.
"I'm alarmed that the EPA is still considering extending the outfall as a viable option. It's having a destructive impact onshore and if you move it offshore, it will have the same destructive impact.
"If the outfall wasn't good enough for the residents of Bangholme or the Bay, why is it good enough for the ocean?"
Mr Healy says he has noticed an improvement in effluent quality at Gunnamatta recently, but believes the practice of discharging into the ocean is totally unacceptable.
He identifies odour and the impact on the marine ecology, especially the kelp beds, as the main issues with the outfall.
He has not suffered himself, but tells of plenty of people who have complained to him of inner ear infections and other ailments after surfing at Gunnamatta.
He says the community, through its politicians, needs to rethink its attitude to managing water. He is amazed that there was such an outcry over Transurban using one million litres a day of drinking water in its CityLink tunnels when 370 million litres a day of treated effluent is pumped into Bass Strait.
He is convinced that the solution lies in recognising the value of recycled water. The first step is to change community attitudes by treating effluent to potable (drinkable) standard. This might be costly, but he sees significant potential in the idea of piping the recycled water to Gippsland and selling it there.
He believes demand for high quality recycled water may be high and that the issue is a huge opportunity for the Bracks Government to set the standard in Australia in water technology, innovation and environmental improvement - and create jobs at the same time.
"Most people react best when the hip pocket is hurt and it's up to the politicians to make recycled water more economically viable," he says.
"We should start with tertiary treatment at Bangholme, but Melbourne Water should not be aiming for anything other than 100 per cent recycling.
"The reality is that things are not going to change overnight but we should be heading in the same direction and trying to get there as quickly as possible."
He is calling for an action plan on water recycling that outlines a timeframe for "corking the pipe".
"You don't win the premiership if you never aim for the finals," he says.