A massive asbestos waste dump in Gungahlin that contains the original Mr Fluffy asbestos removed from more than 1000 Canberra homes in the 1980s is being tested before the ACT government builds a road over it.
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The road would form part of the proposed Nudurr Drive Extension – stretching through Crace and Palmerston, and connecting Gundaroo Drive and Gungahlin Drive.
Motorists could routinely drive over large shipping containers containing all kinds of asbestos waste, including blue and brown loose asbestos, bonded asbestos and other hazardous materials that have been buried at least three metres below ground.
The Gungahlin site was formerly an old brick quarry, which was opened in the mid-1980s to receive asbestos waste from 1049 contaminated homes during the federal government's $100 million Mr Fluffy clean-up program. Shipping containers were filled with tonnes of mainly loose amosite asbestos vacuumed out of roof spaces.
A spokeswoman for the Environment and Planning Directorate said the site was safe as the waste was contained and buried.
"Asbestos does not leach so would not move through the environment where appropriate capping and management of the site is maintained," she said.
There was considerable public unease at the time the dump operated that it could encroach on future housing developments.
The disposal site – the size of two football fields laid end to end – is zoned Broadacre under the Territory Plan. The spokeswoman said the government had deemed the site was not to be built on and "the planning intention is that it be included in Canberra’s open space network."
The government recently began preliminary investigation into the site as part of the proposed extension, and needed to determine the "depth of burial at the site". Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has also asked for further information on the site as part of the work of the Asbestos Response Taskforce, which is urgently assessing the safety of the 1049 homes that are holding remnant loose asbestos following the failed clean-up.
On this issue, the ACT may need to prepare to accommodate massive amounts of asbestos-contaminated waste if the government receives and approves a recommendation to demolish all Mr Fluffy homes.
A spokesman for Territory and Municipal Services confirmed the government had already assessed its capacity in the two active licensed asbestos disposal sites at the Mugga Lane and Belconnen waste management centres as part of its response to the Mr Fluffy problem.
Meanwhile, estimates vary on the number of ACT landfill sites that still contain asbestos in either loose or bonded form.
Some reports suggest dozens of former sites are in existence across the city.
This includes the emergency landfill constructed in Stromlo to accept the fire damaged houses following the 2003 bushfires. The spokeswoman said that in the event of proposed development, all landfill sites would be subject to "a detailed assessment and independent audit in accordance with the ACT government and national policies on the management of contaminated sites to ensure they were suitable for the proposed development".
The ACT government has recently suffered some costly and embarrassing discoveries of asbestos dumps during large-scale land development projects.
Most notably, costs for the North Weston Pond project in Molonglo in 2010 blew out to $58 million – or nearly three times its original price – after the discovery of 90,000 tonnes of soil contaminated with asbestos-laden building waste that had been dumped there over several decades.
Similarly, at least 600,000 cubic metres of asbestos-contaminated soil and waste was discovered at the East Lake development site in Kingston – sparking a battle in 2011 between the ACT and federal governments over remediation costs.
And in 2012, the Land Development Agency confirmed asbestos was present at a site off Constitution Avenue designated for a $250 million mixed-use development.
