Report dumps on council

By Danielle Galvin
AN AUDITOR General report into contaminated sites has slammed Cardinia Shire Council for failing to maintain the disused Nar Nar Goon landfill and assess its possible health risks.
The report says the site is one of 150 across the state that local councils, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the State Government had failed to properly assess.
Cardinia Shire has two contaminated sites, one in Nar Nar Goon and another in Pakenham South.
But the council’s waste management services co-ordinator Misty Johannsen said that a contractor tested the Nar Nar Goon site’s ground water and gas levels twice a year.
She said that the condition report was passed onto the EPA for evaluation.
“Council is pleased to report that the results have been meeting EPA requirements,” she said.
The former Five Mile Road landfill is gated with an ageing sign, warning residents to keep out.
The report was tabled in Parliament in December and cast an unflattering light on the authorities that manage the sites.
“The Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD), the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and councils are not effectively managing contaminated sites,” the report stated.
“Consequently (they) cannot demonstrate that they are reducing potentially significant risks to human health and the environment to acceptable levels.”
But a spokesperson for the EPA said that the owner of the sites was responsible for their management.
“The Priority Sites Register (PSR) lists notices on sites.
“These notices impose strict environmental controls to ensure the owner manages the site to prevent environmental contamination, including to land and water,” the spokesperson said.
Sites become a priority after the EPA issues a clean-up notice and are removed when the site is assessed and the threat is downgraded.
Industrial waste dumped in Hall Road landed Pakenham South on the register, which was revised late last year.
The former Nar Nar Goon landfill site has remained on the list for the past four years because it has not been properly assessed.
The EPA spokesperson said that the sites were often subject to clean-up and management orders under the environmental authority’s directions.
“Closed landfills are still subject to environmental controls that require the site’s owner to undertake certain actions and ongoing aftercare,” she said.
“EPA’s responsibility is in regulating and controlling the uses of land to prevent contamination of land and water.”
The report found that the health, environmental and financial risks related to the contaminated sites were relatively unknown.
“Typically, these are sites where the pollution presents an unacceptable risk to human health or to the environment and must be dealt with as a priority,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Johannsen said that the EPA occasionally assessed the Nar Nar Goon site and that the council had no current involvement with the Pakenham South site.