Five oyster suppliers and one clam fisher at St Helen’s could be out of action for at least three weeks after a sewage spill at Georges Bay.
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A TasWater spokesperson said heavy rainfall on Thursday morning led to an overflow at the Esplanade Sewage Pump Station.
“Initial sampling has been undertaken as part of a sampling regime for the Esplanade and Beauty Bay and we will continue this over the next few days,” the spokesperson said.
The Break O’Day Council issued a public health warning, advising people to not make contact with the water.
Lease 65 Oyster Farm’s Craig Lockwood said there was always a closure when more than 30mm of rain was forecast, as waste material from wild animals led to an influx of e-coli.
TasWater said nearly 100mm of rain fell in only a few hours on Thursday.
“The bacteria is consumed by oysters, muscles, clams which are all filter feeders and that has an impact on us if we consume them … they would be harmful to humans,” Mr Lockwood said.
“Every week that goes by that we are unable to sell makes us unreliable in the market place and that has an impact on our ongoing market share and obviously the cash flow through the business.”
Oysters Tasmania executive Neil Stump said it had been a hard year for Georges Bay farmers, who were forced to close for four months during winter due to similar deluges.
He said producers are prevented from harvesting with a mandatory closure of 21 days after a sewage spill.
“But there is a new test, the bacteriophage test, which can give a more accurate reading of e-coli levels,” Mr Stump said.
He said a food safety group in South Australia had offered to conduct the bacteriophage test for the growers, to help get them back to harvesting before the 21 day restriction.
The financial impact for the producers could be “quite significant” especially given the winter closure last year.
“Sometime in late October, November they reopened and were frantically getting stock off their farms and marketing what they could prior to Christmas but my understanding is that there are still farms carrying a reasonable amount of stock that is ready to market, so it does disrupt their abiltiy to meet orders,” Mr Stump said.
Taswater said tenders for a new $1.2 million Esplanade pump station and rising main upgrades would start next week to help prevent future spills.