The search is on for the culprit responsible for pollution which turned a Wollongong city waterway bright green on Thursday.
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The waterway, which flows into Fairy Creek and then into the lagoon at North Wollongong beach, had been hit with the near-glowing substance where it flows under Gipps St.
A resident reported it on Thursday afternoon and within an hour Wollongong City Council staff were on the scene to try and clean up.
A bund was installed to contain the chemicals, water was pumped onto the creek downstream of the pollution to help it flow, and the contaminated section was pumped out.
At the scene on Friday morning Councillor Catch Blakey urged anyone with information to report it, so the culprit could be found.
"It's disgusting to see one of our local waterways being used to dump chemical waste," Cr Blakey told the Mercury.
"I'm really heartened though that someone reported it quickly and that council took quick action putting in a bund, trying to contain the pollutant, getting samples, and pumping some of it out.
"It's really important that if anyone knows anything they contact council or the EPA, so we can find out who's responsible, and not only take compliance action but also to get them actually to fund the recovery work."
It's really important that if anyone knows anything they contact council or the EPA
- Cr Cath Blakey
The council has called for community help to find the cause, and identified the pollution as a substance called Span 85, which is a biodegradable surfactant used in many industrial applications.
"This work is continuing [on Friday] with the intention of finishing the clean-up ahead of the weekend's wet weather forecast, which risks the contaminated water flowing further downstream," the council said.
Cr Blakey pointed out lizards and fish that were in and around the waterway, which was sustaining life despite running through an industrial area into Fairy Creek.
"I was contacted by a resident who's actually done some birding here and talked about seeing different birdlife ... we can see now there's fish and there's water dragons.
"So it's really terrible that someone has dumped this pollution into the creek.
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