What you’ll need to do before you develop this site

MORE than 25,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil — enough to fill 10 Olympic swimming pools — will need to be dug up before a $300m redevelopment in Adelaide’s inner east can happen.

1000 homes are planned as part of the redevelopment of the Glenside hospital site.

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MORE than 25,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil — enough to fill 10 Olympic swimming pools — will need to be dug up from the former Glenside hospital site before the land can be developed for housing.

A development plan for the site, now out for public consultation, shows much of the surface soil is contaminated with potentially carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

And according to one expert, remediation of the land might cost as much as $5 million.

“Surface soils in these areas are unsuitable for the proposed residential uses,” the plan read.

An artist’s impression of the redeveloped site at Glenside.

A report by Tierra Environment recommended up to 25,000cu m of contaminated surface soil be dug up and then buried under 4.5m of clean soil to be excavated from the site.

Cedar Woods, which is building up to 1000 houses on the land it bought from State Government earlier this year, was confident the contaminated soil would not pose an issue.

“In the scheme of things in contaminated sites, this is not that bad,” development director Patrick Archer said.

He would not be drawn on the potential cost of remediation.

An artist’s impression of how the redeveloped site will look.

But Andy Ball, director of the Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Remediation at RMIT University in Melbourne, said it would “probably be in the range of $100 to $200 per cubic metre”, meaning it could cost up to $5 million.

Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment managing director Ravi Naidu said burying contaminated soil under clean fill was a common way of eliminating risk.

“Placing a barrier between contaminated material and people will minimise exposure,” Mr Naidu said.

He said long-term exposure to PAHs had been linked to cancer but “there were not many circumstances when you see people affected”.

Speaking at a recent public meeting held to discuss the Glenside redevelopment, former president of resident’s group Community Alliance SA Tom Matthews said the contamination was “a very serious matter”.

“Can the contaminated areas be made complete safe or not?” he asked the meeting.

Unley state Liberal MP David Pisoni said the Environment Protection Authority must monitor the site.

He said the EPA must “ensure residents of Glenside aren’t exposed to airborne particles as the work’s being done and those who move into the site won’t be forced to move out in 10 years because something has popped up that wasn’t picked up at the time”.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure said “extensive site testing” has been undertaken at the Glenside site.

Cedar Woods would pay the full cost of the remediation, she said.

Last year, a playground on the corner of East Tce and Wakefield St in the city was closed after Adelaide City Council soil testing found the level of PAHs was up to 20 times recommended levels.

Further tests revealed there were no potential health risks.