Mulch contaminated with asbestos has been found at 75 sites across greater Sydney, with the New South Wales environmental watchdog turning focus to its criminal investigation after the completion of contact tracing.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) will on Thursday announce it has finished tracking mulch through the complex supply chain after asbestos was first discovered by a parent in mulch at a park in the inner west more than two months ago.
The state’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe, has pledged to tighten regulations after the probe, which remains a criminal investigation with “multiple lines of inquiry still live”, according to the government.
More than 130 investigators from the watchdog have spent the past two months tracing mulch, mostly supplied by Greenlife Resource Recovery, to contractors and landscapers who spread the material across the city.
Asbestos has since been found in the landscaping materials in parks, schools, hospitals, infrastructure projects and in a handful of suburban back yards, prompting concern from the residents and costly remediation and testing bills for companies involved.
Guardian Australia in recent weeks has revealed shortcomings in the state’s waste regulation system, including claims by a former EPA officer that the contamination crisis was “destined to happen” after a decade of regulatory failure.
The Guardian has also revealed that multiple samples of asbestos-contaminated mulch tested as part of the inquiry were also found to contain “construction and demolition waste” and “foreign materials”, in contravention of state rules.
Sharpe said the government would work on reform while the EPA continued its work.
“While the EPA works on its criminal investigation, the government will move to tighten regulations and make further changes as required,” she said.
“Asbestos is illegal in any product and should not be there. The discovery of asbestos in mulch has led to the biggest investigation in the EPA’s history.”
Most of the asbestos has been found in bonded form and deemed lower risk than friable asbestos, which has been discovered in a handful of locations including several inner-city parks.
The EPA estimated about 6,500 tonnes of mulch had been tracked down, assessed and tested over the past eight weeks, with more than 1,000 samples analysed.
The EPA investigation is being supported by an asbestos taskforce that the government set up a month after the crisis began unfolding.
Earlier this week, Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, accused the government and the EPA of a “massive” and “costly” regulatory failure over the saga.
City of Sydney councillors gathered at an extraordinary general meeting on Monday to discuss how contaminated mulch came to be used across numerous city parks. Moore revealed testing alone had already cost the council more than $200,000.
“The community has been badly let down by the regulatory process that governs the safety of recycled mulch,” she said.
“Costs of testing, disposal and remedial work are having and will have a substantial impact on our ratepayers, as is the fencing off and the loss of recreational space for our residents.”
Greenlife has repeatedly insisted it was not responsible for the contamination and that multiple rounds of testing by independent laboratories showed their mulch was free from asbestos before it was distributed to customers.
The EPA has ordered Greenlife to stop selling mulch while it investigates. Greenlife has launched a legal challenge against that prevention notice.
