An investigation into the growing New South Wales asbestos scandal has become the state environmental watchdog’s biggest-ever probe with hundreds of sites potentially contaminated including parks, schools, train stations and suburban back yards.
A surge workforce of public servants and firefighters will assist the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) as it expands its criminal investigation into mulch found to contain asbestos across Sydney and regional NSW.
The investigation is supported by an asbestos taskforce announced by the NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, on Thursday – more than a month after asbestos was first discovered in mulch at the Rozelle parklands.
Greenlife Resource Recovery supplied the mulch that has since been found to contain both bonded and friable asbestos across Sydney.
More than 130 EPA investigators are working to “contact trace” mulch through the supply chain from Greenlife to contractors and then landscapers.
Greenlife has insisted it is 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.
Sharpe said on Thursday the state had a “zero tolerance approach” to asbestos.
“The challenge that we have as a result of the discovery of asbestos in a range of different places – around 22 sites at this point – is that we need to understand how it got there,” she said.
“It is illegal for it to be there and we are now part, and the EPA is part, of a very important environmental criminal investigation into who has done the wrong thing.”
The EPA chief executive, Tony Chappel, said it was a “complex, large supply chain” and while multiple suppliers were being looked at as part of the probe, so far only mulch from Greenlife had been found to contain asbestos.
“It is a very major investigation, probably the largest in the EPA’s history and we’re aiming to bring it to a rigorous conclusion as quickly as possible,” he said.
“The entire supply chain is under intense scrutiny now and we are looking at multiple other suppliers as well … but to date, all of our positive detections are connected through a common thread of this supplier.”
So far, more than 100 businesses have been caught up in the chain and hundreds of sites have been identified as having received potentially contaminated mulch. Among those are several private homes that are understood to have had landscaping work done.
More than 200 sites have been tested and 10% of samples have returned a positive result for asbestos.
Asked why the EPA was not cordoning off all sites flagged as having potentially contaminated mulch while testing was done, the premier, Chris Minns, said it would be beyond the resources of the government.
“I’m sorry to say but the truth of the matter is the number of properties would be very large right across Sydney,” he said.
“Not every place, not every [contact traced] park has tested positive to asbestos but to lock every single park up or school or hospital would be beyond our resources right now.”
Sharpe said Greenlife was the “common thread throughout this entire issue”.
“One supplier supplied to around 30 different distributors who have now distributed it further down the chain and we think it could be over 100 [users],” she said.
Sharpe added: “I want them to throw the book at anyone who’s done the wrong thing.”
Earlier this week, Greenlife said the EPA had tested nine mulch samples and three soil samples taken from its facility in January and the results showed the materials were “free of asbestos contamination”.
A spokesperson said independent laboratories had tested Greenlife’s mulch more than 20 times between March and December 2023 and found it was free of asbestos.
“[Greenlife] stands by its statements and maintains that mulch leaving GRRF’s facility has tested negative for asbestos,” they said.
The taskforce will be led by the chair of the NSW Asbestos Coordination Committee, Carolyn Walsh.
Earlier this week, dozens of parks across the City of Sydney were partially closed after asbestos was confirmed to have been found in three and potentially contaminated mulch was traced to another 32 sites.
