Hobsons Bay Council ordered to search parks for asbestos by EPA
The EPA says it’s taking “seriously’ the discovery of asbestos in parks in Melbourne’s west and north but it says the risk of contamination is “very very low”.
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A council in Melbourne’s west has been ordered to investigate all of its playgrounds, after asbestos was found in a local park.
But authorities say the asbestos found is the safest kind, rather than the dangerous friable asbestos that can be breathed in.
The Herald Sun revealed last Wednesday the Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood, which only opened in April last year, was out of action over the school holidays after building materials were found in the tanbark.
Just a day later, a second playground — this time in Coburg North — was found to have asbestos in the soil.
On Sunday, the Environmental Protection Authority Victoria ordered Hobsons Bay City Council to inspect all council-managed parks and gardens that had received mulch in the past 18 months.
Over the weekend, EPA officers inspected seven parks across Hobsons Bay City Council (5) and Merri-bek Council (2) areas, following reports of potential asbestos.
Work was ordered to begin on Monday and had to be completed by May 10 and the council will need to keep EPA updated daily of its inspections.
In a press conference on Monday, EPA Victoria regulatory services operations director Duncan Pendrigh said the risk of harm remained very low.
“The level of contaminations is very very low, we’ve only found a handful of asbestos pieces after combing through a number of parks in that council area ... so this risk of harm to the public and environment is low,” Mr Pendrigh said.
“As a precaution we’ve asked the council to fence off areas where contamination has been found until it can be further examined or remediated.”
At this stage, Merri-Bek council didn’t have “anything to answer for”, Mr Pendrigh said.
Illegal dumping has been flagged as the likely cause of recent building materials in mulch over the past week and the mulch producers were unlikely to be responsible, he said.
The EPA will send a note to all councils this week but will not send the same action notice it has given to Hobsons Bay City Council.
So far, the material confirmed as asbestos containing material is bonded asbestos, not the more dangerous friable asbestos.
The EPA inspected 59 mulch producers in March, and visited another following last week’s discovery in Spotswood, but found no asbestos in the mulch distributed by them.
Mr Pendrigh said the EPA prioritised investigating suppliers who were more likely to be carrying mulch from second hand materials but there was no evidence they were involved.
The EPA has asked Hobsons Bay council to provide a list of all supply chain contractors for mulch producers used in the past two years.
Victoria’s chief environmental scientist Mark Patrick Taylor said he spent all Sunday alongside Mr Pendrigh at several sites of concern but did not see any observable asbestos.
He said it was important to acknowledge about a third of all homes contained asbestos and the type of bonded materials recently found were not easily made into fibres which could be inhaled.
“We know mums and dads are concerned — and it’s a concern we are taking seriously — but it’s important to separate a risk from a hazard,” Prof Taylor said.
“This is a hazard and we should be concerned but as mentioned the material in this form are widespread in our homes.”
He said the contaminated mulch was found laid under trees, rather than in the soft bark used in playground areas.
The EPA urged mulch producers to focus on quality and for suppliers to reject loads that were not up to standard.
He said suppliers with inadequate quality control should be banned and that material sent to landfill.
Prof Taylor said these discoveries were more likely to do with the widespread use of asbestos in the building industry for decades until the early 1990s and those properties being demolished before better regulation of those materials was implemented.
Mr Pendrigh said the EPA was confident the situation was not similar to what had been uncovered in NSW earlier this year when a mulch producer appeared to be implicated but said the contamination could have been sourced from somewhere else in the supply chain
He said it was possible some material used at sites across Hobsons Bay could have been cleaned better as he observed lots of “concrete aggregate” among mulch near a toilet block upon inspection.
The EPA has requested all Victorian councils assess their quality controls for landscaping works and supply contracts for garden mulch, and to demolition companies reminding them of their environmental compliance obligations regarding asbestos management.
Earlier on Monday, Government Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the EPA had been “very proactive” in responding to the asbestos detection.
Ms D’Ambrosio said the EPA was working with local councils by actively carrying out testing of parks.
“They’re all over this, they’ve absolutely hit the ground running,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.
“They’re absolutely fully utilising the powers and resources they’ve got.”
Meanwhile, the Allan government is being urged to undertake a full audit into asbestos on public land so that Victorians can be assured parks are safe to visit.
Opposition environment spokesman James Newbury on Monday called on the government to urgently launch an audit, saying such an investigation was overdue.
“Disappointingly, our agencies have failed at protecting the community or getting their facts right,” he said.
“The Allan Labor Government needs to step up, explain how this happened, and publicly guarantee that this and other parks around Melbourne are safe.
“Every parent will be deeply concerned about asbestos being found near where children play. It’s just not good enough that the substance was there, and we are calling for a full and proper audit to be conducted urgently.”
Hobsons Bay Council has been approached for comment.
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