Asbestos found in mulch at Sydney school, four more to be tested
The company at the centre of Sydney’s growing asbestos scandal is challenging an order stopping them from selling potentially contaminated mulch as the number of contaminated sites rises to 32.
NSW
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The company at the centre of Sydney’s growing asbestos scandal is challenging an order stopping them from selling potentially contaminated mulch.
While they are abiding by the current prevention order placed on them by the NSW Environmental Protection Agency, Greenlife Resource Recovery are fighting it in court next month believing they are not to blame.
The agency’s CEO Tony Chappel told reporters on Saturday that whoever is found responsible for exposing the public to asbestos will foot the bill, not the taxpayer.
“Under NSW legislation the polluter pays for the pollution,” he said.
An investigation is under way to consider whether criminal charges will be laid against the supplier identified by the EPA.
Mr Chappel said fines for those offences can range from $44,000 to $1 million or even jail time if convicted.
“There are a range of potential offences that may have been committed but I can’t comment specifically,” he said.
”There is no excuse for breaking the law or providing any product that contains contaminated material.
“Legacy asbestos contamination is a challenge for Australia to deal with for probably the remainder of the century, it’s in one in three of our buildings.”
It comes as three more sites around Sydney, including a school, have been confirmed to have asbestos-riddled mulch and four more are set to be tested over the weekend.
Asbestos investigators this morning said they found a single piece of bonded asbestos in a garden bed at Allambie Heights Public School after testing on Friday.
The school was one of seven tested as a precaution yesterday over concerns they used the same mulch supplier implicated in other sites around the city.
As part of investigations two residential building projects in southwest Sydney and Munn Park in Millers Point have also come back with positive results.
Millers Point resident Annie Clifford was walking her dog past Munns Park, which has been extensively cordoned off with warning signs erected.
“I think it’s disappointing that it’s so widespread across Sydney and I think it is indicative of people not doing the right thing and cutting corners,” she said. “I don’t think the blame should be put on one supplier because there’s a big supply chain.
Frazier Wilson, who lives across the road from the park, said he’d now avoid the area which he said usually attracted a lot of families with children and pets.
“I was shocked, who would know to even look for it?” he said. “I didn’t cut through the park up the road today, like I usually would.”
The NSW Environmental Protection Agency announced early Saturday morning that three other sites had returned positive results for asbestos but refused to detail where for “privacy reasons”.
The agency said it is now looking into mulch at four more schools around Sydney, Domremy College in Five Dock, Edmonson Park Public School, St Michael’s Catholic Primary School in Daceyville and Trinity Catholic College in Kemps Creek.
The newly launched asbestos task force will also be in Olympic Park this weekend, the venue for Taylor Swift’s Sydney shows next week, to examine mulch there.
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe told the Saturday Telegraph yesterday it would not stop the shows from going ahead.
“This will not stop Taylor Swift performing in Sydney,” she said.
“Sydney Olympic Park Authority is inspecting mulch that came from the supply chain under investigation that has been used on a median strip on a divided road.
“An initial test on the mulch found no asbestos. A back up test is being conducted as a precaution.
“We are testing samples but, regardless, we can remove the mulch and remediate before Taylor Swift takes to the stage in the Harbour City.”
To date the EPA has tested more than 300 samples since the debacle began last month, with only 32 tests coming back as positive for asbestos.
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