By ALESHA CAPONE
CAIRNLEA landowners could soon be informed whether their property has been affected by contamination from the former Albion Explosives Factory.
In 2012, the EPA said testing, due to be completed this year, would reveal how far contamination detected in Cairnlea’s groundwater had spread, since the explosives factory closed in 1986.
Last week, Star asked the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and Department of Defence (DoD) about the audit.
A spokeswoman for the EPA said the defence department “will be contacting people in mid-November if their properties are affected”.
“The audit of the land in Cairnlea is still being finalised, and EPA is still in the process of reviewing the information relating to the clean-up of groundwater,” she said.
Star was unable to find out how many properties, if any, were affected by the contamination – and the level and type of pollution in the groundwater.
Last year, correspondence between the Victorian Ombudsman George Brouwer and the EPA revealed monitoring had found elevated levels of 2.6 dinitrotoluene – which is used to manufacture TNT – and mononitrotoluene in groundwater in Cairnlea.
Some levels, located south of the Kororoit Creek, exceeded the recommended level humans should come into contact with.
Cairnlea residents such as Graeme Blore have raised concerns about a residential and industrial development which Places Victoria has proposed for their suburb, including a park which is “sited on the toxic landfill hillocks abutting the Western Ring Rd”.
Western Suburbs MP Khalil Eideh said in Parliament Places Victoria had failed to tell residents “the proposed redevelopment was to be constructed on contaminated land”.
“One of the major parks indicated in the plans is located in one of the key areas where heavy contamination was identified by the Environment Protection Authority,” he said.
However, a Places Victoria spokesperson said remediation at the proposed park site would be required to undergo “final approval by an independent auditor to meet Environment Protection Authority Victoria standards prior to any development occurring”.
The independent audit is presently being conducted, leaving the park’s future in doubt until its completion.
A defence spokesperson said soil contamination on the former Albion Explosives Factory site has been remediated.
“The contamination included nitrate, ammonia and some nitrotoluene,” the spokesperson said.
“Defence is working closely with the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) regarding residual groundwater contamination.”
