Brighton Beach residents in Melbourne have voiced concerns over the beginning of the new Life Saving Pavilion, with 14,000 bricks formerly part of the Life Saving Club dumped a short distance from the iconic boat sheds.
The concern is that the bricks themselves may be tainted with asbestos-containing material – one resident explained that the old surf club rooms were “riddled” with asbestos.
“We have dust from the brick pile blowing onto our properties and anyone who walks past or uses the track alongside the car park to the beach,” he told the Herald Sun.
“All this is before they’ve even started sorting and cleaning the bricks, which we believe will happen at the car park.”
Local council, Bayside, disagrees, saying that the bricks have been cleared of any potential contamination.
Residents believe that the private developer in charge of the site will be forced to board up the site and introduce dust suppressing measures to protect locals.
The director for Environment, Recreation and Infrastructure, Adam McSwain, has confirmed that the council is working with the contractor to clean the material and tidy the space.
In 2018, a tip-off to the EPA resulted in preliminary testing at the site, which uncovered “cyanide, arsenic, lead, asbestos and other toxic substances.”
The subsequent report by the EPA found the “hazardous nature of these containments” meant it was “reasonably expected to make the land or the produce of the land harmful or potentially harmful to the health or welfare of human beings”.