Brisbane’s Lord Mayor got down and dirty this morning, helping workers clear flood-affected stormwater drains.

It’s an urgent task that must befinished before the storm season – expected within weeks.

Madolline Gourley reports.

TRANSCRIPT

Graham Quirk is lending a hand with the city’s stormwater drain restoration.

The drains are silted up with debris from the January floods.

So far, workers have cleared about 80 per cent of the 450 kilometers of pipes under the city.

Graham Quirk, Brisbane Lord Mayor: “Anything that’s uncompleted is obviously a concern, and we’re moving on that as fast as we possibly can. We will principally have the city back and restored ready for the major summer storm season.”

With 15-million litres of silt and mud being cleaned up over the past nine months, focus quickly turned to the environmental impacts of the clean up.

Chris King, SuperVax: “Most of the stuff will be turned into, well, I would think into mulch. They actually screen it through mulch materials and try and recycle it the best they can.”

SuperVax assures Brisbane residents contaminated silt will not be dumped into creeks or rivers.

In fact, Councillor Quirk says the clean-up has actually improved the overall quality of water in the city’s rivers and creeks.

Graham Quirk, Brisbane Lord Mayor: “They’ve improved enormously; there’s nothing like a good stretch of sunlight to improve the quality of the water in the systems itself. Together with the general cleaning out of the systems, it’s improved dramatically.”

The entire sewer system under Brisbane should be flushed clean by the end of October.

Madolline Gourley, QUT News.