Removal of asbestos from mulch at Sydney Park begins todays

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The clean-up of asbestos at Rozelle Parklands in Sydney’s inner west has begun. The area has been closed since early this month after asbestos was found in garden mulch used in landscaping.

Transcript

00:00 Workers here at Roselle Parklands are preparing to begin the onerous task of removing asbestos-ridden

00:07 mulch after the park had to be closed two weeks ago.

00:11 The clean-up process was set to officially start today, but so far the trucks and excavators

00:15 here are sitting rather idle.

00:18 There's also no bins or anywhere else for the toxic material to be disposed into.

00:22 The workers here will have their work cut out for them, with the Environment Protection

00:25 Authority suspecting there's more than 10 tonnes of contaminated mulch that needs clearing.

00:31 And it won't be an easy job.

00:32 It's expected that most of this park will stay closed until April, with some sections

00:36 gradually opening from March.

00:38 A total of 17 samples have come back positive for bonded asbestos, a discovery which was

00:44 first made after a child took home some mulch.

00:48 Transport for NSW has admitted that this process has been rather frustrating and remedial work

00:53 will be difficult.

00:54 The contractor CPB Joint Venture, who built this park, has been urged by authority to

00:59 have the toxic mulch removed by the 29th of February.

01:03 And if they're found to be at fault by the EPA, the company will have to foot the bill.

01:07 Investigations into the asbestos-plagued mulch are ongoing, but we are assured that its replacement

01:13 won't be supplied from the same source.

01:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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