Nambucca River oyster farmers are facing a minimum 21-day closure after floods triggered a sewage spill in the estuary and wiped out infrastructure and oyster stock.
Local grower James Ford said previous floods and prolonged wet weather had kept the river closed for harvest since late last year.
"We only got the river opened a few days ago and we are shut again," he said.
"There's another sewage spill from our local council and that's a slap in the face of at least another mandatory 21-day closure."
Mr Ford said a sewage spill also occurred during the floods in March.
"The same thing happened last time … we're over it," he said.
Farmers fed up
Just eight oyster businesses remain on the river and Mr Ford says growers are fed up.
Prolonged closures have meant farmers missed vital sales.
"We've lost Easter sales, we've lost Christmas sales and to lose both in the same year — it's 70 per cent of your production," Mr Ford said.
"We need every opportunity to get back open but we're copping mandatory 21-day closures and nearly back-to-back closures from the wet weather.
"Five spills in one year — you're up over 100 days [unable to harvest]."
Council 'working tirelessly'
Mr Ford said he wanted the Nambucca Council to do more to avoid another spill in the future.
"The scary thing is we didn't really get that big a downfall before it went this time," he said.
"We hadn't even reached, as far as I know, the 50 millimetre mark before it was actually recorded that there was a spillage."
Council's general manager Chris Thompson said it would be working to fix the sewage spill as soon as possible.
"Floodwaters enter the sewage system and put an additional load on the sewage treatment plant and sewage will bubble up at different points from time to time.
"Our response has been to have a good crew out there working tirelessly to identify any trouble areas and fix them as soon as they can."
Mr Thompson said the council would look more closely at the problem.
"We've got a further report coming to council's meeting next week about improving the sewage systems that have been identified to prevent further spills."
