Victoria’s environment watchdog has warned local councils to tighten quality controls on potential asbestos in mulch, as it investigates suspected illegal dumping of the contaminated material, which has been discovered at several parks.
On Sunday, April 7, the Victorian Environment Protection Authority said that it had ordered Hobsons Bay council, in Melbourne’s west, to hand over records of its supply chain for mulch production and conduct wider testing for asbestos, after the material was found in several reserves in the council area.
The EPA on Monday said that its inspections uncovered contaminated material at six parks, five in the Hobsons Bay council area and one in Merri-bek council, in Melbourne’s north. The EPA has sent materials containing suspected asbestos from four sites to be tested, with results expected on Tuesday.
The EPA’s director of regulatory services, Duncan Pendrigh, on Monday said the regulator would write to all councils urging them to examine their quality assurance processes for construction and landscape work.
“They’re all responsible for the quality of the mulch that gets laid and they’ll be held accountable by us,” he said.
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He said there was no evidence that mulch producers were introducing contaminated building materials but said it was under investigation.
“We can assure you that the mulch producers appear to have a clean bill of health,” he said. “It’s really about the widespread use of asbestos in building the last four years or 40 or 50 years up until 1990.
Pendrigh said that the EPA was investigating the possibility of illegal dumping and said there had been a recent increase in this activity. He said the EPA was also investigating the supply chain of contaminated mulch and companies that construct and demolish parks, as well as council oversight of this.
Speaking further, he said he was confident asbestos discovery in Victoria would not be as widespread as New South Wales, where bonded asbestos has been discovered at more than 75 sites, including parks and schools, stressing the risk of harm was low and only minor amounts of contamination had been uncovered in Hobsons Bay.
But he also said that as a precaution, the EPA has asked the council to fence off areas where contamination was discovered.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
