The City of Newcastle council is seeking several million dollars to cover the cleanup costs after a warehouse fire in Wickham earlier this year which exposed the local community to asbestos.
One source told the Newcastle Herald that the site was “cursed” and that the bill is likely to exceed $2.5 million.
The NSW branch of the Environment Protection Authority said it had received $255,000 in reimbursement costs from the council for its role in the cleanup, but other government agencies could also be owed millions.
The owner of the site, Investec Australia Finance, has put the site up for sale. Two of the warehouses at the site burned down in March this year, with the council footing the bill ofr the cleanup of local public areas, including roads and footpaths, which was the result of smoke plumes from the fire.
The recovery of the site was conducted after a Local Recovery Committee was established, and involved the City of Newcastle, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Public Works Advisory, NSW Health and SafeWork NSW.
The site was cleared by specialist asbestos management consultants and contractors, and all public areas were deemed safe in July this year.
The cleanup of the site itself was the responsibility of Investec, and has been completed, including the demolition of the two fire-damaged buildings and the removal of asbestos-containing materials.
Air monitoring has also been conducted extensively since the blaze, and all results between March and July registered at <0.01 fibres/mL, which the City says is below the limit of detection and within normal background levels.
The City said, via their website, that “This means that there is no evidence to indicate that the community has been exposed to respirable airborne asbestos fibres above normal background levels from the Wool Store fire.”
Following on from the completion of the remediation at the site, long-term air monitoring will be implemented, which will involve further “reassurance asbestos air monitoring”, aimed at confirming that there is no increase above background asbestos levels in the area.