Leake,who advised on the remediation of the Sydney Olympic site in the early 1990s and at Barangaroo,said the risk of contamination at Rosehill was lower than the adjacent industrial site Camellia,primarily because it had been operating as a racecourse since 1885.
But there remained a risk of asbestos dust blowing across from the nearby James Hardie factories during the 26-years of operation and the potential for the underlying water table to be contaminated with chromium-6,a toxin generated through industrial processes and a known human carcinogen,Leake said.
“I would recommend that the EPA would review the current controls and would have to be able to convince anyone buying land for residential purposes that the place is safe to live,and there are no ongoing,especially airborne contaminants,that they should be concerned about,” he said.
The previous Coalition government’s vision for Camellia-Rosehill,a move that was ultimately ditched in favour of redeveloping Rosehill racecourse.Credit:NSW government
In response to questions to Planning Minister Paul Scully,a government spokeswoman said:“We’re not going to comment on what’s hypothetical. We’ll progress any development application in the normal way.”
Through a spokesman,the Australian Turf Club said several site investigations had been undertaken at Rosehill Racecourse over the last five years,which had found very low levels of contamination in small pockets of the site.
A 2015 contamination study from Golder Associates marked the Rosehill Racecourse as having a “medium” risk of potential contamination,but a more recent 2021 report by the same consultants considered the risk to be “low”.
Premier Chris Minns and ATC chairman Peter McGauran at the announcement of the memorandum of understanding on December 7.Credit:Dion Georgopoulos
The cost of undertaking any necessary remediation of parts of the Camellia precinct was difficult to estimate,Leake said,but he said the quantum was likely to have been a massive consideration for the Minns government in deciding to go with the Rosehill site.
“My guess would be that it’s not prohibitive for putting housing on Rosehill Racecourse,but it probably would be for doing it on the highly contaminated industrial site (Camellia). That’s why they’ve changed their mind,” he said.
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Leake acknowledged remediation work was already underway — including for tram maintenance sites – and monitoring of potential leaching from Camellia had been ongoing for a considerable period of time.
The Coalition’spurchase of a six-hectare site in Camellia for $53.5 million — more than three times the $15.5 million the Valuer-General’s valuation — in 2015,has ultimately cost the taxpayer $116 million to clean up the heavily contaminated site.
Remediation work next door to the Tram Depot site,6 Grand Avenue,included a barrier wall up to 20 metres deep around the one-kilometre perimeter of the site to stop toxic chemicals leaching.
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