The Iemma Government plans to spend just $2.1 million removing radioactive waste from Nelson Parade, Hunter’s Hill, before selling the blocks it owns for housing, Castle Hill MP Michael Richardson revealed today. 

“This is a cut-price clean-up - it would cost more than this to establish a radioactive waste dump,” Mr Richardson said.

“The plan is to dig up around 1250 cubic metres of contaminated soil, transport it to the road by conveyor belt, load it into trucks and take it to ‘a suitably licensed landfill, under the appropriate waste classification’.

“That should be a nuclear waste dump. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing anywhere in Australia.

“However, as the remediation is being dealt with under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, Planning Minister Frank Sartor will be the determining authority, so the Government can pretty much do what it likes with the waste.

“The cheap option has always been to mix the radioactive waste with hydrocarbon contaminants from the foreshore, and call it ‘industrial waste’. But that’s unacceptable, both to local residents, and those who live near wherever it’s dumped.

“The preliminary environmental assessment says ‘contamination issues associated with the site are generally well understood by the local community’, and ‘remediation is likely to be welcomed by local residents, particularly immediately adjoining property owners.’

“The immediate neighbours are hopping mad because they weren’t informed what was on the site, and because the project does not go far enough.

“The preliminary environmental assessment acknowledges that the Radium Hill refinery site covered Nos. 5 to 11, not just the Government owned blocks at Nos. 7 and 9.

“The proposed remediation only cleans up Nos. 7 and 9 and the foreshore of No. 11 Nelson Parade.

“The Government also owns radioactive land on the foreshore of No. 13, and there’s contamination on Nos. 5, 11 and 13 which must be dealt with for the sake of current and future residents of Hunters Hill.

“The ball is well and truly in the Government’s court. It has to come clean on its remediation strategy, including saying where the nuclear waste will be disposed of.”

The Government received a remediation costing of $1.5 million from GHD Pty Ltd in 2005. A September 19 2005 letter from Jeff Pollard, Senior Property Officer in the Department of Health, makes it clear the costs would change if the waste were classified as hazardous, rather than industrial.

Mr Pollard told a meeting of Government and Hunters Hill Council representatives in May 2003 that ‘DOH does not have a capital budget for this project, the costs will have to be covered completely by the sale of the land with hopefully some profit.’ He added ‘they must break even or hopefully make a small profit before they can give the go ahead’.

‘DOH is very concerned about all the “possibles” which may derail or dramatically increase the costs involved. They can’t go off half-baked.’