Liverpool Council CEO Carl Wulff says the council is working closely with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to address concerns that potentially contaminated fill has been distributed to 22 sites in the Liverpool Local government area.
“The tiny amount of asbestos located in stockpiles of material means that now we must test and – if appropriate – rehabilitate any sites where the fill may have been used for council works,” Mr Wulff said.
“However, trace amounts of asbestos would not be airborne or pose a health risk to members of the public and council workers,” he said.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the councillor who raised the issue at last Wednesday’s council meeting, Cr Peter Ristevski, said 22 sites, including Casula High, could be affected by contaminated fill if the allegations proved correct.
The newspaper report said Cr Ristevski asked the council what monitoring and testing regimes had been established to check the health of staff and residents who may have been exposed and whether the school was notified.
“There could be a massive liability in terms of the health to the public,” Cr Ristevski said after the meeting.
Cr Ristevski said the asbestos had been stored at the council’s now-defunct road base recycling facility, known as the western depot, and later mixed in with soil and other materials and used as fill.
In his media statement issued yesterday, CEO Carl Wulff said that a highly respected independent waste auditor had been engaged to ensure the process was handled transparently, efficiently and safely.
“We are working closely with the EPA to address all the concerns at the sites, but at this stage only a few fragments of asbestos have been found at each of 10 sites.”
Mr Wulff said that the recent discovery and clean-up of asbestos pieces found above ground at Casula High School had nothing to do with Liverpool Council.
However, he said that backfill used by council during drainage works, in the open space between the school and Myall Road, is yet to be tested for any contamination.
“Again this site is capped and does not pose an immediate health risk to anyone,” he said.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“But the site will be tested as a matter of priority.”[/social_quote]
Mr Wulff said that the finding of asbestos at any location is complicated by the fact that pipes were once made from asbestos, many of the houses in south west Sydney were originally built with asbestos cement material, and that illegal dumping of asbestos may have occurred.
“Nevertheless council will remediate any site where traces of asbestos are found.”
Mr Wulff said that an audit had revealed council’s waste management practices had been poor in the past and that the review would result in the implementation of stringent new waste management practices with appropriate oversight.
He said that claims that contaminated soil was sold to a developer were incorrect.
