tl;dr Pumped the shit out to sea after an initial filtering only, no other city in Aus does this (they use secondary processes after the initial filtering), did it because it was cheaper.

back to the article…

The environmentalists Dr Richard Gosden and Prof Sharon Beder take a different view – Gosden accuses the EPA and Sydney Water of knowing “exactly what’s happening”.

Gosden and Beder were part of a group called Stop the Ocean Pollution (Stop) who campaigned in the 1980s to have “secondary” treatment added to the Bondi, Malabar and North Head plants before the outfall pipes were built.

Stop garnered significant support, including from the 250,000 people who Gosden said attended the Turn Back the Tide protest concert in Bondi in 1989, but ultimately were unsuccessful.

Sydney invented beach culture,” Gosden says. “It’s Australia’s single cultural invention that’s been properly exported. And all the time, it’s been conducted in diluted sewage.”

Must be disappointing to them, in the 1980s they protested (as experts!) and pointed out this will lead to a “shitty” future (pun intended) FF 40 years and here we are, swimming in our own shit.

Reminds me of the climate debate really.