A site near Melbourne Airport has been earmarked as a likely dumping ground for soil that may contain contaminants, which were excavated for the Melbourne Metro rail project.
At last Tuesday’s public hearing of State Parliament’s economy and infrastructure committee into infrastructure projects, Melbourne Metro Rail Authority chief executive Evan Tattersall said large quantities of landfill from the rail project would be dumped “somewhere in the vicinity of Melbourne Airport”.
Western Metropolitan Region upper house MP Bernie Finn leapt on Mr Tattersall’s “unexpected” comments, demanding to know whether the fill would be contaminated.
Mr Finn said Mr Tattersall did not provide an answer. “That left me very worried,” he said.
“We’re talking about enough material to fill the MCG. We’ve had a gut-full of being used as the dumping ground of Melbourne; we have more than contributed over the years to taking this material.”
Mr Finn cited years of angst among residents, who had had to put up with contaminated landfill issues at Bulla and Tullamarine. He has formally requested Environment, Climate Change and Water Minister Lisa Neville to give a guarantee to the people of Melbourne’s north-west that she will prevent the dumping of possibly contaminated material from this project in their area. He said he was yet to receive a response.
The metro rail project involves two new tunnels under Melbourne’s CBD, and five new stations. It was first announced by the Brumby government and revived by Premier Daniel Andrews at the start of the year.
Construction of the two nine-kilometre tunnels will involve excavating significant amounts of soil, and the state government has not said yet where that soil will be distributed.
Ms Neville did not confirm whether the surrounds of Melbourne Airport had been identified as a potential landfill site.
She told Star Weekly last week that Mr Finn was “just playing politics” and looking to deflect attention from the former Liberal government’s “wasted four years”, which she said had delayed the vital public transport project that “will create capacity for 20,000 extra passengers every hour, every day”.
Ms Neville said most of the soil excavated during the rail project should be able to be reused. “Any that isn’t will be managed in accordance with all relevant planning and environmental guidelines.”
