EPA finds cyanide, arsenic, asbestos at Brighton’s Dendy Beach
The environmental watchdog shut down Dendy beach earlier this year but it has only now been revealed what lethal toxins were found not far from one of Melbourne’s top tourist attractions.
Inner South
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Cyanide, arsenic, lead, asbestos and other toxic substances have been detected at a popular stretch of Brighton beach shut down by the environmental watchdog earlier this year.
The potentially lethal substances were found just below the surface of Dendy Beach — less than 200m from the Brighton Life Saving Club and in earshot of Brighton’s famous bathing boxes.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a preliminary test of the area in April after getting a tip off it would find asbestos buried under the sand.
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The asbestos was spotted during a dig for a Cultural Heritage Management Plan required as part of Bayside Council’s controversial Dendy Street Beach Pavilion Project.
The agency’s report found the “hazardous nature of these containments” meant it was “reasonably expected to make the land or the produce of the land harmful or potentially harmful to the health or welfare of human beings”.
As a result the EPA issued the council with a “clean up” notice.
One of the council’s requirements of the notice was to submit a risk assessment of the contaminated area.
Bayside environment, recreation and infrastructure director Steven White said the assessment did not “identify any imminent risk to the public”.
“(The) council is currently meeting all the obligations as set out in the (EPA) clean up notice and is continuing to work towards progressing the construction of the new Dendy Street Beach Pavilion,” he said.
It’s understood, the council is waiting on the EPA’s response to its assessment before it takes further action.
In the meantime, the contaminated area remains closed to the public as the council scrambles to fulfil its obligations.
It has already sunk $80,000 of ratepayer cash testing and assessing the site but will need to submit another report to the EPA by January 2019.
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