New Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital could be built on contaminated land

A major new hospital in Sydney’s west could be built on top of an old rubbish tip contaminated with friable asbestos, lead and other hazardous waste. Watch the video

A major new hospital in Sydney’s west could be built on top of an old rubbish tip contaminated with friable asbestos, lead and other hazardous waste.

The contamination under the Bankstown Sports Complex — used by children’s sporting teams seven days a week — was only identified by an independent report commissioned by the local council, despite NSW Health launching its own investigation into waste at the site almost a year ago.

Health authorities have refused to release the findings of their own investigations, saying they are still being “assessed”.

The location is still being considered as the site for the new Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital – with East Hills MP Wendy Linday its chief advocate – despite the worrying contamination findings.

Contaminated waste has been found under a potential site for a new hospital at Bankstown.

Asbestos was found within one metre of the surface, including “loose fibre bundles (friable asbestos) in fill materials”.

Other waste, found just two metres from the surface was considered to “possess hazardous characteristics”.

Toxic Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) were detected in samples taken from the site 2.5m from the surface.

Australian authorities consider PCBs to be “probable human carcinogens”.

Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour said the council’s own drilling exposed liquid that was “bubbling away” with noxious gases.

“There’s definitely methane and petroleum vapours,” he said.

“It’s just unbelievable. It was a whole lot worse than what we thought it would be,” he said.

“Putting a $1.3 billion hospital to service the growing community of Canterbury-Bankstown on a toxic waste dump I think is outrageous, and the government should rule this out straightaway,” Mr Asfour said.

A still from a video of chemicals bubbling underneath the Bankstown Sports Complex site.

Canterbury-Bankstown council estimates that remediating the contaminated site would cost up to $100 million initially, then millions of dollars in ongoing costs to keep the site safe.

“My view is that money should be spent on health not on containing gases,” he said

The former tip and brickpit is understood to be one of two sites being considered for the new Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, the other being in the CBD — the location backed by the council.

“That’s where it should go: close to services, close to transport, close to high quality jobs. And it’s a no-brainer,” Mr Asfour said.

Government sources acknowledged that there were problems with contaminated land at the sports centre.

Sources said that the matter was set to be discussed at a high-powered cabinet subcommittee on Thursday.

Drilling at the site has uncovered toxic waste.

Ms Lindsay did not respond to requests for comment.

NSW Health drilled into the sporting grounds for “in-ground investigations” in May last year.

The Canterbury-Bankstown Council has been blocked in its requests to see results of the government’s drilling, leading it to commission its own waste report.

“They don’t want to share this information because there is a there is a concerted push inside of government to put the hospital on this toxic site,” Mr Asfour said.

“The in-ground investigations at the Bankstown City Sports Complex are being assessed

as part of the due diligence process for site selection,” a NSW Health Infrastructure spokesman said in a statement.