Motion - Environment Tasmania's Map the Crap Campaign

Tuesday 1 September 2026

[11.41 a.m.]

Mr PRESIDENT - As the honourable member for Huon makes her way to the lectern, just to clarify for members the word in the title that may be considered unparliamentary in other forms, including interjections, that type of thing, as it's a formal title it is within parliamentary practice. So, feel free to use the title of the document in your contributions.

Ms GLADE-WRIGHT (Huon) - Mr President, I move the motion in my name-

That the Council:

(1) Notes the concerns raised by Environment Tasmania’s Map the Crap campaign (www.mapthecrap.com.au) about under-treated sewage released into Tasmania’s waterways during bypass events, including the claim that more than 635 million litres of under-treated sewage were released during 2024–25.

(2) Notes that the majority of bypass events involve skipping secondary treatment before discharge, and that Environment Tasmania states under-treated sewage can contain pathogens, nutrients and other contaminants that pose risks to human health and waterways.

(3) Acknowledges that Tasmanians use waterways for swimming, paddling, rowing, boating and fishing, and that Department of Health advice states recreational waters may be a public health risk if contaminated and that not all beaches and rivers are regularly monitored.

(4) Further notes that TasWater owns and operates 110 sewage treatment plants, and that TasWater’s 2024–25 Annual Performance Report states only 10 of those plants currently meet all environmental licence conditions.

(5) Recognises that existing EPA Tasmania sewage spill notification guidelines require notifiable spills to be reported to EPA Tasmania within 24 hours and critically notifiable 2 spills within 2 hours, but that Environment Tasmania is calling for public-facing real-time monitoring and alert systems so communities can make informed decisions as events occur.

(6) Affirms that Tasmanians have a right to timely, accessible and reliable information about sewage pollution risks in the waterways they use.

(7) Calls on the Tasmanian Government to work with TasWater, EPA Tasmania, the Department of Health and local councils to:

(a) Consider funding real-time or near-real-time monitoring at all TasWater sewage treatment plants and key bypass/outfall points;

(b) Consider creating a public live map, website and alert system for bypass events, and publishing quarterly reports on bypass events, compliance, public alerts and progress in reducing bypass reliance; and

(c) Report to Parliament within six months on implementation, costs, timeframes and to achieve the above.

[11.50 a.m.]

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Mr President, I, too, thank the honourable member for Huon for bringing forward this important and very interesting motion.

The Map the Crap campaign is something that many people might not know about but is very relevant to my electorate of Launceston and the areas surrounding it. According to Lucy Tremain at Environment Tasmania, in 2024-25 over 27 million litres of undertreated sewage was dumped above Launceston's key tourist destination, Cataract Gorge, putting locals and over 400,000 tourists at risk of exposure to harmful pathogens and toxins.

Additional information from Environment Tasmania relevant to Launceston: in addition to the 27 million litres of undertreated sewage released from Prospect Vale Sewage Treatment Plant which flowed into the Cataract Gorge, the Ti Tree Bend Sewage Treatment Plant released over 338,980,000 litres of undertreated sewage directly into the Tamar River, and nine out of 10 sewage treatment plants are operating in breach of the Environmental Protection Notices.

The Map the Crap campaign seeks to help manage this issue to see all sewage treatment plants fitted with real‑time monitoring equipment which can alert the public to the latest bypass sewage events, helping to prevent Tasmanians from coming into contact with undertreated sewage. Obviously, undertreated sewage is a hazard not only to human health, but to that of our environment, ecosystem and fauna. The honourable member for Huon's motion rightly points out that Tasmanians use waterways for swimming, paddling, rowing, boating and fishing, and should have the right to do this safely and free from contaminants, especially in waterways that are public.

Launceston and its surrounding regions and suburbs do face a unique challenge in this respect, and I recall from my time on Launceston council just what a wicked problem the combined sewer and stormwater system was, especially given that it has in fact been over 100 years in the making. We know that in Launceston a combined sewer and stormwater system services over 9000 homes. A system that was constructed as Launceston was settled as a city and grew over time. At the time it was constructed it was fit for purpose, and we obviously can't go back and change it all now. Suburbs affected include the inner parts of Launceston, East Launceston, West Launceston, South Launceston, Invermay, Newstead and Mowbray. Anyone familiar with Launceston knows that this is a very significant portion of the region. Therefore, it's easy to see why it's such a big problem and why it's so difficult to manage and fix.

We have some existing tools such as the City of Launceston Open Data mapping platform, over which you can put layers showing the locations of water, stormwater and sewer facilities. Obviously, this helps people to see how their own properties might be affected as well as public areas during storm and sewage events.

Organisations like the Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce (TEMT) I know work extremely hard to manage events and develop policy plans to address future issues. They rely on doing good research, taking care of the environment and working with the community to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to have their stay and put their ideas forward. Of course, we've seen here many policies and ideas from many people for managing the Tamar generally, but I really want to commend TEMT and their team for their hard work.

I further note in the honourable member's motion that TasWater owns and operates 110 sewage treatment plants and that TasWater's own 2024‑25 Annual Performance Report states that only ten of those plants currently meet all environmental licence conditions.

As technology gets better, and better at tracking environmental events, I can see how we can use this sort of data to manage, fix and perhaps even predict these events going into the future. Where our existing facilities are not operating in compliance with our own regulations and environmental licence conditions, it's really up to us to consider how we manage our facilities and environment going forward.

The imperative here, first and foremost, is that of human health and wellbeing. These sorts of conditions in our waterways are not what you expect in a developed modern country like ours. If we cannot completely redo our stormwater and sewage systems in Launceston, we at least need to be able to properly manage it going forward.

Secondly, our environment depends on it. Our very precious flora and fauna, particularly our marine life, can't just up and move. They're exposed to these contaminants and hazards through no fault of their own and if we want to have a healthy ecosystem, we need to be able to provide adequate and timely policy, engineering and infrastructure solutions. To do this, we need to be able to monitor our sewage treatment plants and our sewage events. In other words, we need to be able to map the crap.

I commend the efforts being made by the City of Launceston and TEMT, as well as the many community groups and organisations who work towards keeping the Tamar River and surrounding environment clean and healthy. Clearly, there is more that needs to be done at higher levels of government, and through TasWater. But I acknowledge these problems cannot be solved overnight and will take sustained levels of interest and commitment to manage.

It would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the fixes that are in place, or slated to be implemented, to help ameliorate the undertreated sewerage in Launceston. One of these measures includes the Launceston Sewer Transformation infrastructure project, which aims to modernise and consolidate ageing sewer infrastructure and improving safety and well-being for people in the environment. The Prospect Vale Sewerage Improvement Project is a significant step towards future proofing the city's wastewater network, by retiring ageing infrastructure and directing wastewater to the Ti-Tree Bend facility. The project will help build a more dependable, efficient and environmentally responsible sewerage system.

There's also the Storm Water Intrusion Program, a collaboration between NRM North and the City of Launceston, completed in June 2021, over two years. Detailed investigations of Launceston stormwater network identified 44 instances where sewerage had been incorrectly connected to stormwater pipes, resulting in untreated wastewater flowing directly into the estuary. Correcting these issues now prevents about 13.2 megalitres of sewage each year from entering the waterway, redirecting instead to treatment facilities. In practical terms, that's more than five Olympic-sized swimming pools of wastewater kept out of the estuary every year.

Moreover, new sewage pump stations at Hoblers Bridge will be constructed to redirect these flows, and in the future, it's planned for sewage treatment plant consolidation and upgrades for the Riverside, Legana and Newnham areas. While there's a lot of work to be done, there's plenty of ongoing work being done between the state and local governments in the state's north, as well as between environmental and public agencies. It's a difficult problem to solve, but we have lots of people working very hard to make these improvements.

Luckily, Mr President, where the Tamar River is concerned, there is no shortage of interest. I believe there is a place for the adoption and implementation of technology, and the use of existing data to help us plan now and into the future and encourage the government to consider what options are available to help manage the twin imperatives of human and ecological health and well-being. I thank the member and support the motion.