“The impacted areas have been fenced off,” he said. “These areas will remained fenced until remediation process occurs.”
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Trevaskis said the investigation was complex and that the feedback the council had received from the EPA was that the source appeared to be illegal dumping. “The investigation remains ongoing,” he said.
When councillor Diana Grima asked whether it was the council’s practice to examine mulch after it had been laid in council parks,Trevaskis said regular inspections took place during redevelopment works.
Quizzed about how much the bill would be for the mass testing of sites and remediation works,Trevaskis said the council had not determined such costs and it was unclear whether ratepayers would foot the bill.
On Monday,Victorian councils were warned to tighten quality controls on potential asbestos in mulch after the dangerous material was discovered in a spate of public parks across Melbourne.
It was a call backed by asbestos removal specialist Steve Marett,who wants councils to increase regulation in the parks they oversee,including beefing up monitoring for illegal dumping of potentially hazardous materials.
“Councils should be focused on roads,rates and rubbish and this issue falls under the rubbish component,” said Marett,who is director of Grounds Maintenance Australia.
“You see so much palaver and fluff about everything else councils are doing and in my opinion,there’s been a big oversight here.
“Councils are doing so much for recycling,but I think they can do a lot more in the contaminated space.”
EPA director of regulatory services Duncan Pendrigh said on Monday was no evidence so far that mulch producers were introducing contaminated materials into parks and that the EPA was continuing to investigate the possibility of illegal dumping.
“We think the mulch producers are an unlikely source for this contamination,” Pendrigh said.
This week the EPA slapped two remedial notices on Hobsons Bay City Council,which runs four parks in Altona North and one in Spotswood where suspected asbestos was discovered last week.
It ordered that the council commission a hygienist to inspect all council-managed parks and gardens that had received mulch in the past 18 months. Work must be completed by May 10.
Victoria’s chief environmental scientist,Professor Mark Patrick Taylor,said earlier this week the risk of harm to the public remained extremely low.
“It only becomes a risk when asbestos is fragmented,broken up and produces fibres,and the potential risk of harm would occur when those fibres are inhaled,which is unlikely to occur with the bonded asbestos that is involved in the inquiries,” he said.
In Sydney,the discovery of asbestos-contaminated mulch at 75 sites,including seven schools,triggered theNSW EPA’s largest-ever investigationand likelytougher laws.
Pendrigh said the EPA was confident Victoria was not facing the same situation as NSW,where two mulch producers had been implicated in the scandal. He said investigations into Victorian mulch producers so far showed they appeared “to have a clean bill of health”.
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Traces of asbestos had already been confirmed in mulch at Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood,PJ Lynch Reserve in Altona North and the Merri Creek Parklands in Fawkner.
The EPA believed the source of asbestos in mulch at the Spotswood reserve was due to illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste that occurred after the mulch was delivered. Investigators also believe the source of asbestos at PJ Lynch Reserve was due to illegal dumping.
Merri-bek City Council said on Monday that it had taped off a section of the busy Merri Creek trail near Leonard Street,Fawkner,where asbestos was discovered after testing.
The council said buried fragments of asbestos were exposed following recent heavy rain and the discovery was not believed to be linked to contaminated mulch.
In an updated statement on its website,Hobsons Bay council said it continued to cooperate with the EPA’s investigations and had provided them with a list of all its mulch suppliers,as well as contractors and subcontractors used for its parks and reserves.
Brimbank council acting director of infrastructure and city services Tom Razmovski said community safety remained the priority. “We await information from the EPA and will cooperate with their instructions and implement any actions as directed,” he said.
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