Victoria’s environment watchdog is warning 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.
The Victorian Environment Protection Authority on Sunday said 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 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.
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 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.
Pendirgh 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.
Pendrigh stressed the risk of harm was low and only minor amounts of contamination had been uncovered in Hobsons Bay.
But he said as a precaution the EPA has asked the council to fence off areas where contamination was discovered.
The EPA has discovered potential asbestos at PA Burns Reserve, in Altona, GJ Hosken Reserve, in Altona North, Crofts Reserve, in Altona North, Shore Reserve, in Pascoe Vale South and PJ Lynch Reserve, in Altona North. Asbestos-containing material was initially found in mulch next to a playground in Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood last week.
The EPA also conducted testing at Kororoit Creek trail, in Altona North, but no suspected asbestos fragments were found.
Last week, Merri-bek council confirmed asbestos contaminated soil at Hosken Reserve, in North Coburg, after an earlier discovery in late January.
The EPA has ordered Hobsons Bay council to commission a hygienist to inspect all council managed parks and gardens that have received mulch in the past 18 months.
Pendrigh said the EPA was not requesting further information from Merri-bek council, because the potential asbestos discovered at Shore Reserve, in Pascoe Vale South, appeared to have been introduced to the site after the mulch.
Victoria’s chief environmental scientist, Prof Mark Patrick Taylor, said the risk of harm to the public was extremely low.
“We should all realise that about one-third of our homes in Australia have asbestos in them. It is typically the bonded asbestos, the asbestos that is not easily made into fibres,” he said.
“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.”
The mayor of Hobsons Bay, Matt Taylor, told the ABC on Monday 10 parks across the council were being examined for asbestos.
EPA Victoria has conducted precautionary inspections of 59 commercial mulch producers and said on Wednesday no traces of asbestos were found in their products.
The EPA returned to a mulch producer previously visited after asbestos was found at Donald McClean Reserve and discovered no contamination.
