The conservative Liberal-Nation premier of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell, has confirmed that the businessman chosen to run a massive rubbish dump in western Sydney is being investigated by the environmental watchdog.
The $300 million waste management site at Eastern Creek comprises a recycling plant and a 150-metre-deep hole, which will be filled over the next 20 years with 12.5 million cubic metres of industrial waste, including asbestos.
Mr O’Farrell attended the opening of the facility earlier this month when he affirmed that the dump posed no health risks to locals.
However on Sunday Mr O’Farrell admitted the owner of the site, Dial-A-Dump CEO Ian Malouf, was under investigation by the independent Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
“He’s subject to investigation by the independent environmental agency,” Mr O’Farrell said.
His comments followed reports in Sydney’s The Sun-Herald newspaper that Mr Malouf was linked to companies that were being investigated for serious pollution offences.
Mr O’Farrell again defended the site, which does not yet have a licence to operate.
“What we opened was what is needed in Sydney, an enormous waste facility,” he said.
“It’s a facility that has applied for a licence, it’s a facility that will only get a licence if the independent environment agency is satisfied that it will operate within environmental laws.”
The premier said he could not confirm whether Mr Malouf and his wife had donated almost $40,000 to the Liberal Party, which he leads, in recent years.
“You’d have to ask others that,” he said.
On another environmental matter, Mr O’Farrell said he was happy for the NSW Ombudsman to investigate the relationship between Australia’s biggest water utility and NSW Office of Environmental Heritage.
The investigation comes after reports that pollution complaints against Sydney Water Corporation were being brushed off and that the relationship between the two bodies was too cosy.
“I’m happy for all these issues to be dealt with by the Ombudsman,” Mr O’Farrell said.
One Response
How can Barry seriously believe this will cause no health risk to the Minchinbury community? Seriously??? Barry needs to hang out with asbestos removal contractors/demolishers and asbestos accepting land fills to really see how these guys work. IN addition, he needs to see how plastic breaks down over the years from UV, rain, hail and other weathering conditions and how excavators run over the plastic to compact the fill. Ask yourself Barry, what happens when you crush bonded asbestos and the plastic tears ?? Easy it’s called friable asbestos and worse than that airborne friable asbestos fibres which will be carried by the wind (regardless of how deep the hole in the ground is) over to the MInchinbury estate – on our clothes lines, up our noses, into our lungs! WAKE UP BARRY. Mesothelioma can be prevented in Minchinbury thats if – IF YOU WANT IT PREVENTED.