by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A soil-works operator is resisting an order to clean up a giant dirt mound allegedly contaminated with asbestos in Bangholme’s Green Wedge.
ESI Projects Pty Ltd had been ordered by EPA Victoria to cease accepting excavated material and to remove any confirmed contaminated soil at the 576 Frankston-Dandenong Road site by 28 February.
However, the operator – who has deserted the site – has since applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review of the soil removal order, EPA Victoria confirmed.
More than 500 residents at Willow Lodge retirement village live 400 metres to the north.
Several fear that ESI Projects had ‘cut and run’ and left them at risk of toxic wind-blown soil dust during summer.
EPA Southern Metropolitan Regional Manager Viranga Abeywickrema said: “We are continuing to monitor activities at the site to ensure that risk to the community remains low.”
“But as the matter is now before the Tribunal, EPA will not be making any further comments.”
Greater Dandenong Council recently stated it was taking action due to a breach of the earthworks planning permit.
Council chief executive Jacqui Weatherill said Greater Dandenong was “actively working to resolve this matter”.
“To ensure the best outcome it is important our enforcement activities remain confidential.
“However, we will provide the community an update when it is appropriate to do so.”
In August, the EPA had issued a notice to investigate the towering soil stockpile with alleged Category-D “low-level contamination” with toxic asbestos and heavy metals.
This was in alleged breach of the operator’s EPA licence to accept clean-fill soil only.
It ordered the operator to “cordon off” the pile and remove the affected soil to a licensed landfill.
Late November, the EPA issued a second Non-Disturbance notice over a second waste pile containing a “small amount of construction and demolition waste”.
Some fragments were being sampled and analysed for potential asbestos.
Meanwhile, works have also stopped at a waste-water and soil transfer station at the same address, with its operator GND Civil Group lodging a VCAT appeal for a permit.
In September, Greater Dandenong Council cited 19 grounds for refusing a permit for operation taking in about 20,000 litres of slurry a month.
GND Civil has been operating the soil transfer station for several years, with the council refusing two permit applications in 2022 and this year.
