February 11 (UPI) — Sydney Water, Australia, has confirmed that a massive fatberg estimated to be “the size of four buses” is located in a hard-to-reach location beneath a sewage treatment plant.
A giant fatberg (a collection of fats, oils and grease) beneath the Malabar wastewater treatment plant is now thought to be the source of black balls that have regularly washed up on Sydney-area beaches since 2024.
The balls were initially thought to be tar, possibly from an oil spill, but analysis by the University of New South Wales found they contained human faeces.
Sydney Water managing director Darren Cleary said officials were now aware there was a huge fatberg in the tunnels beneath the Malabar nuclear power station.
“We don’t know exactly how big the fatberg is,” Cleary told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “The size of four buses, that would be its maximum potential range. It could be that, it could be a little smaller. We don’t know exactly.”
He said the blockage was in an “inaccessible dead zone”.
“There’s a portion of that tunnel that we can’t safely access,” Cleary said.
He said the balls that washed up on the beach were likely caused by currents in the tunnels skimming the surface of the fatberg and breaking up small fragments.
“I can’t guarantee there won’t be debris balls in the future. We’re doing everything we can to minimize the risk of that happening,” Cleary said. “We certainly apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
Sydney Water announced plans in January to overhaul the system at the Malabar plant to stem the flow of debris balls. The plan is expected to cost more than $2 billion and is expected to take about 10 years.
