One of Sydney’s major urban waterways – the Cooks River – is at times an “open sewer” carrying effluent containing pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, researchers have found, sparking calls for urgent action to clean it up.
The river, which flows through inner western suburbs of Campsie, Canterbury, Earlwood and Marrickville, before discharging into Botany Bay, has long displayed evidence of bacterial contamination. But now UNSW researchers have pinpointed raw sewage as the culprit, by identifying the exact chemicals being transferred from the toilet to the river.
Read more at UNSW Sydney