Sending council rates to the tip

Rachel Hagan, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Cleaning up three illegal asbestos dumps on southern Yorke Peninsula will cost more than $300,000.

Yorke Peninsula Council had previously allocated this money for strategic projects.

At council’s September 11 meeting, elected members unanimously agreed $321,514 of quarantined general rate revenue would be put towards removing asbestos at Marion Bay, Berry Bay and Coobowie.

Councillor Tania Stock said it was upsetting the funds, raised from increased vacant land rates, had to be used for this purpose.

“I know it’s a necessary project we’ve got to fund,” Cr Stock said.

“When we raised the money by increasing the rating on vacant land, and that was set aside for strategic projects, I thought it would be a genuine community project that we could be excited about.”

A council spokesperson said this sum would not be enough to cover the entire clean-up bill, and that figure would not be known until tenders for the works were finalised.

However, the final figure was likely to far exceed $300,000, the spokesperson said.

Asbestos clean-up sends rates to the tip

YP Council acting chief executive Ben Thompson said council had been working closely with the Environment Protection Authority to upgrade the licence for its Ramsay Waste Transfer Station to save on costs.

“This will allow contaminated asbestos material to be disposed of on-site, rather than transferring it to Inkerman, which would be a more expensive process,” Mr Thompson said.

“The EPA recently approved our request, and we are now finalising the licence conditions and preparing to release the draft tender documentation.”

The asbestos located at the sites is currently non-friable, which means it is mixed with cement or other bonding materials and considered less dangerous than friable material.

However, non-friable material can easily become broken and crushed into a powder, which poses a high risk when airborne.

“All asbestos waste will be handled by licensed asbestos removalists and disposed of at an EPA-approved facility,” he said.

Two of the illegal dump sites, in Marion Bay and Coobowie, are believed to have been used by the community since at least the 1990s.

In July 2023, a YPC employee moved a portion of the rubbish from Marion Bay to Berry Bay and contaminated a further area.

This staff member no longer works for the YPC.  

This article appeared in  Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 24 September 2024.