Beach-goers disgusted at discharge
ALEXANDRA Headland residents and visitors were disgusted when a milky-white, oily substance began pouring out of the stormwater drains and onto the beach on the weekend.
Litres of the mystery liquid reportedly ran out of the stormwater drains at the southern end of Alexandra Headland Beach, in front of a popular surf spot, about 11am on Sunday.
Peter Hogan was checking out the surf when he noticed the white liquid coming out onto the beach.
He ran home to get his camera and found it was still coming out by the time he got back about 45 minutes later.
"It just didn't stop," he said.
"There were other people around who just said it was disgraceful. Tourists were looking at it thinking it's terrible.
"It's just not good enough. It shouldn't happen anywhere, let alone a busy beach like this."
Mr Hogan traced the white substance across the street, and spotted it inside a gutter at the intersection of Edward and Mayfield Sts, but was unable to discover the origin.
"I'm certain it was paint-based, but it wasn't someone washing out a paint brush. There was too much of it for that."
A spokeswoman from Sunshine Coast Council, who manages the storm drains, said they were not called out to the incident.
"If a member of the public sees something like this they can report it to Council," she said.
"The sooner we hear about it, the better chance we have of tracking it back to its source.
"People need to be mindful of what goes into our storm drains, because it goes into our waterways."
The spokeswoman said had the council been notified on Sunday, they could have sent a response team. "Report it to council so appropriate response action can be taken," she said.\
