Malabar plant’s fatberg spews beach‑closing poo balls
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- Malabar plant houses a fatberg about the size of four buses in an inaccessible dead zone behind a bulkhead door, which is believed to be the source of “poo balls” that have closed Sydney beaches.
- Sydney Water tried to gauge the fatberg’s size with a drone, but turbulence from sewer gases and rapid effluent flow prevented the drone from flying straight.
- Sydney Water’s working theory holds that rapid changes in pumping pressure cause “sloughing events” that dislodge parts of the fatberg, which then travel through diffusers at the deep‑water ocean outfall and end up as debris balls on beaches.
- NSW EPA issued a pollution‑reduction program requiring Sydney Water to carry out significant works, including removal of fat from the Malabar bulkhead area.
- Sydney Water staff can access a small chamber behind the bulkhead door during low‑flow, low‑tide conditions to pump out fat, having removed 53 tonnes in April 2025, while the larger four‑bus area remains untouched.
- Coogee beaches, along with Bondi and Manly, were closed in late 2024 and early 2025 after the fatberg’s debris balls washed ashore.
- Fiona Copeman describes the fatberg’s consistency as varying between gritty and scummy and notes staff have even rolled it into balls to study it.
Why it matters: Sydney Water must now invest in costly removal work to stop the hidden fatberg from contaminating beaches, while the EPA’s order forces the utility to address a source of closures that have already hurt tourism and local recreation at popular spots.
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