The New South Wales environment minister is calling it a complex and criminal investigation as the EPA carries out a probe into Sydney’s asbestos saga. Seven schools are now waiting on results to see if they'll join the growing list of sites with contaminated mulch.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 From a garden bed at one Sydney park to more than 20 sites across the city, traces of bonded
00:08 asbestos found in mulch has shuttered schools and parks.
00:13 It is a really complicated and a criminal investigation.
00:16 Testing began at seven more schools in Sydney late on Thursday.
00:20 One of the sites, St Luke's Catholic College, has chosen to close.
00:24 I think it's a problem because it seems like it's spreading all around Sydney.
00:28 The school has done really, really well in notifying us.
00:31 I have no concerns about it.
00:33 The EPA is investigating Landscape Supplies Company Greenlife Resource Recovery.
00:39 Our investigation is looking broadly at potential causal factors.
00:43 This producer is one common link.
00:45 The company denies any wrongdoing.
00:48 In a statement it says mulch leaving our facility is free of asbestos contamination and there
00:54 are multiple different occasions when this mulch is handled.
00:58 My client tested negative.
01:00 The question is what's happening upstream?
01:03 There's also questions around how this product came to be in playground gardens.
01:08 New South Wales has a rule that schools can't use recycled mulch and so the Education Department
01:14 has written to schools to remind them.
01:17 We've reinforced our expectations around no recycled mulch on our sites.
01:21 Meanwhile the Education Department is being prosecuted for its handling of asbestos in
01:26 another incident.
01:28 SafeWork New South Wales has filed the charges alleging failures in dealing with asbestos
01:33 at Castle Hill High School between 2015 and 2018.
01:37 After discoveries in three City of Sydney parks last week, that council has identified
01:43 another 38 sites for testing.
01:45 There's clearly a regulatory failure here.
01:47 These products should not be in this mulch.
01:51 It's likely more contaminated sites will be found before the source of the asbestos
01:56 is uncovered.
01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]