The much-loved Walka Water Works in Maitland is slated to be one of the sites to undergo a “clean up” within the next 24 months.
Crown Lands will focus on locations contaminated by past practices dating back decades, with $13.3 million Budget funding over two years.
That includes dealing with legacy asbestos pollution at the popular Lower Hunter reserve, known for its popular walking trails, at Oakhampton Heights.
The NSW Government has also allocated $41 million, as part of a $54.6 million package, to redress former industrial sites in Maitland and Newcastle.
Property and Development NSW (PDNSW) and Crown Lands will support the remediation of a range of locales polluted by private companies, with the two agencies playing an ongoing role in dealing with contamination issues.
At Rutherford, PDNSW has completed the first phase to clean up the former Truegain waste oil processing facility with a further $19 million allocated in the Budget, over the next three years, to finish the job.
More than 11,000 tonnes of industrial wastewater, toxic oil, grease and sludge waste have been removed from the site.
Above ground infrastructure including 135 steel containment tanks have also been demolished.
The next stage of work will involve the development of a Remedial Action Plan, once investigations into the scale of works required to make the site safe for future use are completed.
Our focus is to clean them up to protect residents, workers and the environment.
Jenny Aitchison
Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison was thrilled by the announcement.
“I have been a strong advocate for the community on cleaning up this site since I was elected,” she said.
“Like many former industrial locales, materials deposited at Truegain left lasting contamination that threatened the local area and the health of the people who live here.
“Our focus is to clean them up to protect residents, workers and the environment.
“The Truegain project has so far included the treatment of more than 9,200 kilolitres of industrial wastewater and disposal of over 2,000 tonnes of toxic oil, grease and sludge waste, which is the equivalent of about five Olympic swimming pools.”
The Truegain site was abandoned in 2016 after the company lost its trade waste permits, had its environment protection licence suspended and entered into liquidation.
In 2021, the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) brought proceedings against the company director and former owner Robert Pullinger to recover incurred costs for its clean-up.
The NSW Land and Environment Court ordered him to pay the EPA’s costs of more than $1.2 million.
In Newcastle, PDNSW is also starting remediation work to remove legacy waste and structures from the grounds of properties on the site of the former Waratah Gasworks.
It’ll allocate $22.3 million over three years from insurance funding towards the project, which will be undertaken in stages with works at seven properties on the south of Ellis Road forecast to be completed by mid-2024.
“The past seven years have been very difficult for the community at Waratah,” Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery said.
“I’m delighted that work to fix this longstanding issue has begun and there is a solution within reach for the residents impacted.”
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