Region. Too much to pay

Sydney Water considers that $1 million is too much to prevent an extra 2.1 tonnes of phosphorus and 3.9 tonnes of nitrogen from discharging into the Hawkesbury River each year. The water utility angered residents, oyster farmers and fishers after it applied for permission earlier this year to discharge up to 10 times more nitrogen, ammonia and phosphorus into the Hawkesbury from the Brooklyn plant. The managing director of Sydney Water, Kevin Young, said, in the Sydney Morning Herald, effluent limits was a proposal that was undergoing ''a robust process'' and no decision had yet been made.