The New South Wales opposition has called for a central register of all sites being investigated for possible asbestos contamination by the state’s environmental watchdog, including parks and schools.
Councils across Sydney have been assessing their parks and landscaping providers after the City of Sydney announced 32 sites were under investigation for possible contamination in addition to three where asbestos was found in mulch earlier in the week.
The opposition environment spokesperson, Kellie Sloane, called on the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state government to set up a searchable register listing all sites under investigation.
“Any site that is under investigation should be on a central register provided by the EPA, which provides real-time updates on the status of those investigations,” she said.
“The first time people hear about a contaminated site shouldn’t be when the fences are going up or the media reports on it. ”
The deputy premier, Prue Car, on Wednesday would not commit to setting up a register, insisting the government was acting “very quickly”.
The discovery of bonded asbestos in the park on top of the Rozelle interchange in January prompted a broad investigation by the EPA and the NSW government, which has detected the contaminant in mulch used at other sites across Sydney and on the south coast of NSW.
Liverpool West public school will be closed for weeks while an extensive remediation of the newly opened primary school grounds is undertaken, forcing more than 700 students to temporarily relocate to the nearby Gulyangarri public school.
Bonded asbestos was also detected at Victoria Park in Camperdown earlier this week, leading the City of Sydney and organisers of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to cancel Fair Day.
The event was due to be held at the park this weekend and attract a crowd of more than 70,000 people.
The EPA investigation is focused on mulch from Greenlife Resource Recovery, which last week lodged an appeal in the state’s land and environment court challenging a prevention notice from the watchdog that bans it from selling mulch while the issue is investigated.
The EPA chief executive, Tony Chappel, on Wednesday said that the agency was undertaking a “major criminal investigation” into the mulch supply chain to pinpoint the source of the contamination and potentially bring the matter before the courts.
Chappel said the agency was investigating a “very complex” supply chain in its entirety and this included looking into other suppliers of recycled mulch.
The EPA may recommend that the government give it stronger powers and tighten the regulations around mulch production, Chappel said.
“That’s very much going to be informed by the result of this investigation and our work across the supply chain,” he told reporters.
The health minister, Ryan Park, moved to assure the public on Wednesday that the government was taking the matter seriously.
“This is an unacceptable situation,” he said.
Park said the EPA had been resourced with more than 100 enforcement staff who were “conducting a criminal investigation at the moment”.
“They will work through a range of different lines of inquiry, from the very source of the product all the way to its final destination,” he said.
Park said other government agencies and local councils should be speaking to their suppliers and the EPA to assess risks.
So far just two councils have been caught up in the crisis. The City of Sydney announced on Tuesday that friable asbestos had been found in Harmony Park, Surry Hills, and bonded asbestos had been discovered at Victoria and Belmore parks.
Penrith Council has confirmed that bonded asbestos had been found at Regatta Park.
Randwick council said a review had found it had not used Greenlife for any projects. Hornsby Shire council launched audits of mulch across several parks last month, which did not yield any positive asbestos results.
“The majority of mulch council uses is recycled from our own tree maintenance activities,” a council spokesperson said.
“We have not used externally sourced recycled mulch within the last 12 months.”
Northern Beaches council said it was speaking to its mulch suppliers to assess any risks but so far no incidents of contamination had been detected.
Canada Bay council said it had “sought and received confirmation from construction partners on key recent council projects that no recycled mulch was used”.
