By Jeremy Sollars
Asbestos remediation works at Southern Downs Regional Council waste facilities will cost just under $575,000, minutes of the January 2020 council meeting show.
The council has also been issued with a $5000 fine by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for failing to maintain its asbestos management records.
In a confidential section of their January meeting held on Wednesday of last week councillors voted in favour of awarding Toowoomba-based firm Newlands Civil Construction a contract to carry out asbestos remediation works at the Warwick, Allora and Killarney waste facilities.
The contract will cost the council $574,493 inclusive of GST and follows the issuing of tenders for the work in mid-2019.
Asbestos management has proved a major headache for the council since late 2018, following the discovery of asbestos contamination on the Collegians Junior Rugby League playing fields in Warwick and on the Warwick Central State School oval.
It is understood a local contractor obtained timber mulch allegedly contaminated with asbestos from the Allora Waste Facility in late 2014 which the contractor used in part to create a “soil blend” later sold to the public, and believed to be the source of the material applied as part of top-dressing on the Warwick Central State School oval and on the Collegians playing fields.
The Queensland Department of Education later instituted action to recover clean-up costs associated with the Warwick Central State School oval from the council, action which is understood to be as-yet unresolved.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland also brought charges against the council in relation to asbestos handling and control at its Allora Waste Facility.
Those charges were finalised last week in the Warwick Magistrates Court – Friday 24 January – with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland offering “no evidence” in relation to a charge of mishandling of asbestos at the Allora waste facility, but the council pleaded guilty and was fined $5000 on two charges of failing to maintain its waste facility asbestos registers.
The council has not stated publicly that material accessed from its waste facilities was directly involved in the Collegians and Warwick Central State School contaminations and this is yet to be conclusively proven.
But what is known is that over the past two years the council has undertaken extensive investigation of asbestos material at its waste facilities, resulting in the remediation contract awarded last week.
Mapping associated with the original tender documents indicated the locations requiring remediation are well away from areas accessed by the public during the normal course of household waste disposal and the documents did not suggest a risk to public health.
The council has previously forecast required spending on waste management systems in the region over the next decade at $11.6 million, not including the current asbestos remediation, and $3.1 million it will spend on capital projects related to waste facilities in the current financial year.
The council has not ruled out the future imposition of a specific-purpose waste levy on ratepayers to help fund waste management expenditure.
