Areas of Black Beach and Kendalls Beach being cordoned off due to sewerage overflow contamination has led Deputy Mayor Andrew Sloan, a water engineer, to call for Sydney Water to report back to Council urgently on the capacity of our sewer system.

"This recent weather wasn't that extraordinary for Kiama," he says.

"These overflows actually demonstrate the sewer network, all the way to Bombo, is already overloaded.

"We certainly don't have the capacity in this network, when it is clear, to handle any further development in South Kiama."

The Bugle received the following statement from a spokesman for Sydney Water, "Sydney Water is continuing to manage the impact of unprecedented flooding in the Illawarra.

"Sydney Water takes its responsibility to protect public health and the environment seriously.

"We are investigating upgrades to the Bombo Plant to reduce the impact of future wet weather events.

"We have placed signage as a precaution and we ask customers to follow the Beachwatch advice to not swim for up to three days after rainfall."

It confirmed that the cordoned off areas at Kendalls Beach and Black Beach will remain closed to the public this weekend. Council closed Surf Beach and Kendalls Beach due to the sewage overflow.

Trucks cleaning up Black Beach on Friday. Council warned residents of the overflow on Tuesday 23 March.

Cllr Sloan explains that in wet weather extra water gets into the sewer network in two ways - either people have illegally connected downpipes to the sewerage system instead of stormwater, or the age of the pipes is such that there is some leakage into them. This is not the first time overflows have happened.

"All systems have that issue, but are designed to cater for five to seven times the normal dry weather flow to handle the extra load.

"For overflows like this, either there is something bad going wrong with the network or it is at capacity.

"We don't know what the capacity of the sewerage system is all the way through town. We don't know the capacity through wet weather.

"We don't know whether it has any capacity to take any new developments and Sydney Water hasn't been communicating with Council."

The issue of the system's capacity was highlighted not only when Jamberoo residents were told there were no more new connections available, but also when a planning proposal (for a major new development at South Kiama Drive of over 450 lots) raised questions about the capacity of the Kiama system to cope.

The Member for Kiama, Gareth Ward, says, "My expectation is that Sydney Water resolves this issue as soon as possible. We need to make sure the environmental health of our community is always put first.

"They have budgets for where there are overflow issues, and they need to get onto it and sort it out.

"If we have to look at broader solutions, then I am happy to raise it with Melinda Pavey, who is the responsible minister."