Posted by A second primary school in Sydney’s north is among four additional sites that have returned positive results for asbestos contamination.
The NSW Environment Protection Agency on Saturday confirmed Allambie Heights public school in northern Sydney, two residential estates under construction in Sydney’s south-west and Munn Park in Millers Point tested positive for traces of asbestos-laden mulch.
A single piece of bonded asbestos was found in one garden bed at Allambie Heights public school, the Department of Education confirmed.
“That garden bed … was already cordoned off,” department secretary Murat Dizdar said on Saturday.
“We did operate on Friday with face-to-face teaching and learning and we’ll be able to do the same on Monday.
“The area has been made safe [for] our staff, students and community.”
A further three private properties returned positive results for asbestos but they are not being identified for privacy reasons and they are not publicly accessible, the EPA’s chief executive, Tony Chappel, said.
Liverpool West public school was shuttered on Monday due to a positive result.
Authorities have since identified four more schools for precautionary testing following inspections to seven on Friday.
They are: Domremy College in Five Dock, Edmondson Park public school in Edmondson Park, St Michael’s Catholic primary school in Daceyville and Trinity Catholic primary school in Kemps Creek.
North Sydney public school, one of the seven inspected on Friday, returned negative tests for asbestos.
There are more than 3,000 schools across the state but Dizdar said there was no need for widespread testing as the department adopts a case-by-case approach.
“We don’t need to quickly jump to learning from home or decanting a school and that’s not the case here with those four sites either,” he said.
The risk to human health remained low if asbestos was bonded and not disturbed, the EPA chief said.
Meanwhile, the University of Sydney has been identified as a potential contamination site and will be tested this weekend.
The grounds of Sydney Olympic Park Authority have undergone testing after the EPA identified landscaping on a median strip as a priority location.
“The initial batch of testing there are all negative,” Chappel said.
He assured the public the site will be safe for Taylor Swift and Blink-182 concerts, which will definitely proceed.
The City of Sydney is also doing precautionary testing on a number of parks, Chappel said.
Since bonded asbestos was first found at the Rozelle Parklands in Sydney’s inner west in early January, the criminal investigation has grown into the largest in the EPA’s history.
On Thursday, Chappel said it was a “complex, large supply chain” and while multiple suppliers were being looked at as part of the probe, so far only mulch from Greenlife Resource Recovery had been found to contain asbestos.
Greenlife has insisted it is not responsible for the contamination and that multiple rounds of testing by independent laboratories showed their mulch was free from asbestos before it was distributed to customers.
Chappel said Greenlife was ultimately responsible for financial remediation under NSW law.
“We are not concerned about companies providing mulch off the shelves that’s contaminated,” he said.
“Bunnings, Mitre10 and other nursery store products are not in question here.”
The number of positive sites grew to at least 32 on Saturday with more than 300 sites already tested.
About one in 10 sites have returned positive results from the testing, the EPA said.