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$1.5m spent on contamination testing

Jan 29, 2015
Environment Minister Ian Hunter

Environment Minister Ian Hunter

The State Government has spent almost $1.5 million on its testing regime at Clovelly and Mitchell Parks since conceding last year residents would need to be relocated due to potentially dangerous contamination.

Yet InDaily can reveal the Environment Protection Authority spent just $134,937 on contamination testing in the area over the preceding five years.

The figure is revealed in a letter from Environment Minister Ian Hunter to Opposition shadow Michelle Lensink, answering a swag of questions that time did not permit asked in the half hour allotted for interrogation in last year’s Estimates process.

The vast bulk of the expenditure  – $133,705 – was in 2008-09 when contamination was first identified in the area. The EPA also spent $1232 in 2011-12. The rest of the time, it relied upon site assessment by local car parts manufacturer Monroe Australia.

Lensink says the EPA “hadn’t done enough testing” on the precinct, given the agency had known of contamination there since 2008.

“The approach that they have has been so ‘wait and see’ the whole way through (and) it seems that any decision about testing regimes have not been driven by the EPA,” she said.

“(It’s) had a hands-off approach to the whole thing; if something comes in they might do something about it, but if there’s no information they don’t seek it.

“It’s very reactive and people expect more from an environmental regulator.”

Over the same five-year period, the EPA spent $728,255 on contamination testing statewide. But the Opposition says over that timeframe the agency has become enormously profitable due to skyrocketing waste levies, with $39 million collected in 2014, compared to $24 million in 2010.

Lensink says as of June last year the EPA had a $53.7 million stockpile in its Waste to Resources fund.

The EPA said the previous amount of $135,000 was spent to undertake testing in the southern Clovelly Park area to determine if there was a risk to human health.

“When there was a risk identified (Unity Housing Flats) this risk was managed accordingly,” a spokesperson said.

“No other significant risks were identified at that time.

“Subsequent testing in one home identified new risks that were previously undetected and this resulted in the 2014 assessment program.”

The spokesperson said South Australia’s site contamination system was “founded on the principle of ‘polluter pays’”.

“This ensures taxpayers are not left to pay the cost of past irresponsible actions and serves as a disincentive to future polluting.

“When the EPA identifies contaminated sites where the polluter is unknown or the polluter is not in a position to fund the necessary investigations, the EPA works with the Government to make the necessary funding available.”

Figures in the Mid-year Budget Review show the Government spent $848,000 in new funds to establish a project management team for dealing with the Clovelly and Mitchell Park fallout, while the cost of conducting the testing ballooned to $1.489 million since July – when Minister Hunter told Estimates it would cost $668,000.

Meanwhile, the EPA has advised residents in Flinders Park and Allenby Gardens that further groundwater and soil vapour testing will be conducted by an external auditor, after the agency banned bore-water use in the area in 2013 due to chemical contamination — including the carcinogen TCE, which was also found at Clovelly Park.

Tony Kyriacou from the Flinders Park Residents Association told InDaily: “The residents have been calling for further testing for several years and they feel vindicated this is now occurring.”

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