Following on from our front page story last month about the dumping of tons of fill/ waste at Geelans Road, Arcadia, the EPA has now concluded their soil testing of the site. Ten core samples were taken and all ten revealed the presence of asbestos in the fill material (also found were bricks, ceramics, metal and other builders’ waste).
It is reported that the EPA have issued the owners of the property with a ‘draft clean up notice’. Once the EPA has reviewed the owners response to the ‘draft clean up notice’ a final clean up notice will be issued. The EPA does have powers to issue fines to the owners of the property, but we have no further information on this.
The residents of Geelans Road are extremely disappointed and angry at the outcome of this matter. They had been advising Council for many months that the development appeared to be far more substantial than the approved DA and that they felt contaminated waste was being bought to site. Following their continual complaints, they had been advised by letter from the Council in July that their concerns about contaminated waste were unwarranted. This was following a visit by Council officers to the site. They finally got traction on their concerns by inviting Ray Hadley to review what was happening.
Newly elected Mayor Philip Ruddock has now referred the matter to the ICAC for a full investigation of Council processes and procedures. Follow more of this story on our facebook page. www.facebook.com/galstonnews
