00:00Since October, the origin of these black balls, which washed up on multiple NSW beaches, has
00:08remained a mystery.
00:09They're revolting, you don't touch them.
00:10It's a bit yucky, especially, like, I'm a swimmer all the time, so just knowing that
00:15there's a lot of pollution around, yeah, it's not great.
00:17Scientists previously discovered that they were made up of debris such as human faeces,
00:22drugs and cooking oils.
00:24Now, the Environment Protection Authority believes they know who is likely to blame.
00:29The complexity of that make-up has been one of the challenges for us to resolve, but we
00:33were pleased now to have narrowed the source to Sydney Water's operations.
00:37The EPA compared the results with samples taken from Sydney Water's sewage treatment
00:42plants, including Malabar and Bondi.
00:45The watchdog says it found a link.
00:47Our facilities have been working normally and within our compliance.
00:53Sydney Water began checking its network when the city's famous beaches were forced to close
00:57last year.
00:59It says it's likely the result of 10 or more discharge events over multiple locations.
01:05There's likely some unique climate factors.
01:07We haven't seen these.
01:08These are a really unique event.
01:10Sydney Water will now need to assess its sewage network to find exactly where the debris balls
01:15originated from and prevent it from happening again.
01:19We will keep an open mind about whether further regulatory action is warranted in this case.
01:24An expert panel will oversee Sydney Water's investigation.
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