'Not good enough': Residents call for delayed Port Kembla drain device

The area is a popular play spot for families with young children, as a rock shelf protects the area from the surf, but residents describe seeing cigarette butts, syringes and dangerous chemicals such as paint washing out of the stormwater drain that opens out underneath Port Kembla Olympic pool onto the beach.

Port Kembla resident Paul Hellier said the issue is at its worst after heavy rains.

"The big concern is people tipping paint or oil in their gutters and then kids being exposed to that type of toxic stuff," he said.

Another local resident, Jess Whittaker, said she raised concerns with Wollongong City Council some years back.

"We were picking up the rubbish off the beach and finding a lot of plastic, but then also there's a lot of syringes that end up down that drain," she said.

After residents' concerns were brought to Wollongong council, in 2019, council conducted a community engagement survey for a stormwater quality improvement device.

Council proposed installing a gross pollutant trap, a kind of grate, further up the drain underneath the carpark between Cowper Street and King George Oval, to stop items from washing onto the beach and enable council staff to easily clean out the captured waste.

The device was included in the 2019-2020 delivery program, with construction scheduled to be complete in 2021.

The initiative was again included in the next year's infrastructure plan, albeit with completion pushed back by a year.

It is a similar story in this year's plan, however the project moves to the Waste Management stream, instead of stormwater services.

A Wollongong council spokesperson said after receiving feedback on the initial plans, the resulting solution was more complex than originally thought.

"We soon recognised that devices currently available were unsuitable for this site, especially after the community feedback. It is taking considerably more time and resources to design, test and optimise a brand-new and purpose-built device. However, what we learn from this project can be used across similar locations across our waterways and ocean," the spokesperson said.

"Additional time was also required to find a suitable contractor for construction, as well as timing construction in the foreshore off-season. The construction stage is now planned over the winter months in 2025."

While the project is only one of dozen of projects included in the Council's multimillion-dollar capital works budget, Ms Whittaker said the issue was one that had been promised by council in previous years and was in a highly visible area.

"The most valuable asset in Port Kembla is the beautiful beach, and to have plastic and cigarette butts and syringes and stuff like that ending up on the beach is not good enough."

On Friday, January 5, Parramatta resident Ken Zhu was spending the day with his daughter at Port Kembla beach, and had set his stuff down in the concrete culvert where the drain empties onto the beach. Without any signage, Mr Zhu said he though the water coming out of the drain was from the pool above, and was safe for his daughter to play in.

"I wouldn't think there'd be water coming from the street to the beach," he said.

"If I knew that [it was a drain] I wouldn't let them play here."

Port Kembla resident Marko Putkovic was enjoying the sun nearby and said it was common knowledge that the area around the drain would be polluted after rains, but wasn't surprised that the delivery of the device had been delayed.

"Everything takes forever."

While Mr Hellier said the drain needed fixing, he said this did not address the wider issue of garbage and pollutants ending up at the beach.

"All of the rubbish that I pick up on the beach is pointless, it's wrappers from cigarette packets, lolly wrappers, chip packets," he said.

"We've become obsessed with packaging ... we could really just ditch all of that stuff."