A brick recycling company in Adelaide’s west says it has applied sealant to demolition material after asbestos was found at the property.
Key points:
- Asbestos was found at the Old Red Brick Company’s Beverley properties on Monday
- Nearby residents and the EPA complained of dust coming from the sites
- The company has also been in court over the alleged illegal storage of demolition waste
As well as ordering the asbestos be contained, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the local council are also pursuing the Old Red Brick Company for allegedly illegally storing demolition material.
Beverley residents say the company started stockpiling demolition waste at a McLean Street property last year, next to its main red brick cleaning business on nearby William Street.
“The doctor said it’s because of something in the air, so it’s very hard for us.”
The EPA issued the company with an order to stop storing and processing waste at the McLean Street site in September, saying it was unlicensed to operate.
It originally set a deadline of November 30 to comply, but the Old Red Brick Company appealed to the Environment, Resources and Development Court and the EPA negotiated a new completion date of January 31.
EPA finds asbestos at site
The company told the EPA on Saturday that there was no asbestos at the site, but the EPA sent consultants to both the McLean and William Street sites on Monday and they found 11 of 19 samples from broken cement fibre material contained white asbestos.
EPA operations director Andrew Pruszinski said it ordered sealant to be applied to the main stockpile by lunchtime today.
He said it was “unlikely” asbestos would be in the dust residents had been complaining about.
However, he said the McLean Street stockpile itself was unlicensed and causing problems.
“But we do have advice though from [SA] Health that the safety’s unlikely to be a problem in terms of the asbestos, but in terms of the dust, it’s not OK.”
MP says EPA too slow to act
Local Labor MP Joe Szakacs said it was “simply not good enough” that the EPA had only tested the demolition material six months after he first contacted the agency with concerns from constituents.
Mr Pruszinski said the asbestos find “needs to be put into proportion”.
“We could only find 19 samples to collect in that whole stockpile,” he said.
“It should be zero, but it’s not like the entire stockpile as far as we know is full of asbestos — there were 19 fragments on the surface.”
The City of Charles Sturt says the company’s demolition material stockpiles do not have planning approval and has ordered them be removed.
“The depot site is supposed to be used for the cleaning of old red bricks but the stockpile of demolition material is certainly not authorised and therefore we believe it is unlawful,” the council’s city services general manager, Bruce Williams said.
The Old Red Brick Company is appealing the council’s order in court.
Company says it is cooperating
Nathan Tam from the Old Red Brick Company said a recent inspection by a licensed asbestos assessor it engaged did not identify any asbestos containing materials (ACM) at its properties.
“The discovery by EPA’s consultants of fragments of bonded non-friable ACM was therefore unexpected,” Mr Tam said.
“The quantity discovered was a very small amount and air monitoring that Old Red Brick Company initiated immediately demonstrated that no airborne fibres have been detected since the discovery.
“Old Red Brick Company is working cooperatively with the EPA, including by sealing stockpiles on request of the EPA within the requested time frame. [The] EPA has indicated it is satisfied with the seal that has been applied.”
However, an EPA spokeswoman said her organisation was “not satisfied with the result” of the sealant.
“There are patches that need to be reapplied,” the spokeswoman said.
“The company has agreed [that] it will have this done today, and EPA officers will inspect again tomorrow.”
Mr Tam said the company had only appealed the order to remove material from the site because the time frame given was “not realistic or practicable”.
“Old Red Brick Company will continue to work with the EPA on a plan for removal of the material from the site,” he said.
The EPA is holding a community information session at the Flinders Park Community Hall on Friday night in conjunction with SA Health, SafeWork SA and the City of Charles Sturt.
