Page 858 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 April 2014
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It has been nine years since Koppers vacated the block in Hume. Nine years later, there are still concerns about the level of toxins in the groundwater on this site. The toxins are apparently contained in a perched aquifer and it is not very likely, assuming the conditions are not dramatically changed, that the toxins will seep into the other water. However, there are mixed opinions as to whether the toxins could spread in the future to surface water, under the right conditions.
Despite knowing of the pollution from 2007, no further testing was completed in the seven years from 2007 until this story broke in the media at the end of March and a test suddenly took place. It appears that the government scrambled to prove that the site was safe and suddenly commissioned testing to be done. The testing which was released last week indicates that the bore water around this area has not yet been contaminated. The minister has to date assured us there is no potential risk to the environment or to the population. But this is about an even bigger picture. It is about the failings of the EPA, the failings of the government and the potential for wider environmental harm into the future.
I am asking for support for this motion today not in the form of any finger pointing or blame, but because the ACT community deserves to know that we are fixing any loopholes or gaps that can exist, so that we can all look forward to better environmental management in the ACT moving forward.
We need to see the government’s plan for managing this situation. We also need to ensure that the EPA has the appropriate systems and processes now and into the future to enforce environmental protection requirements.
We believe the Auditor-General is best placed to review the environmental reporting guidelines and the practices of the EPA so that we can give that assurance to the Canberra community that this is not going to be repeated and assurances that the objectives of the EPA are being met. This is a serious situation and it needs to be resolved. There needs to be a lesson learnt to ensure things are done better in the future in the very unlikely instance that another occurrence takes place. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (3.45): I have circulated an amendment to Ms Lawder’s motion. I move that amendment now that has been circulated in my name:
Omit all words after paragraph (1)(b), substitute:
“(c) prior to self-government there was no requirement for groundwater testing;
(d) the independent audit undertaken between 2005 and 2007 of the recently vacated site found pollution only in the perched aquifer which is a pocket of groundwater separated from the main water table by an impervious layer and not connected to it;
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