Air being monitored daily at old gasworks after November asbestos reading

It follows air monitoring testing in mid-November at the old gasworks, on Russell Street, that found an elevated concentration of asbestos fibres and which led to a "clean-up notice" being issued by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

Jemena, however, says the air monitoring that it has been required to perform as part of the clean-up notice has found the air quality at the site "to be within acceptable levels".

The company also says the gasworks activities at the location had ended before Jemena acquired the long-term lease at the site.

The towering industrial eyesore has long been a blight on the city's landscape, but there were hopes of progress after a surprise announcement in mid-2022.

The NSW Government said at the time that it would help Bathurst Regional Council establish whether there was contamination that needed cleaning up and any structural repairs that were required as a first step in transforming the disused, unloved site.

A year on from that announcement, when the Western Advocate contacted the government for an update, a spokesperson said the Department of Planning and Environment had entered into a deed of access with gasworks site leaseholder Jemena and had engaged consultants WSP Australia to undertake a detailed site investigation to assess contamination.

The EPA's initial clean-up notice issued to Jemena last month said consultants WSP completed a preliminary site assessment of the old gasworks in April 2023 and "this assessment identified considerable asbestos-containing materials (ACM) including high-risk friable and highly degraded materials in various buildings and external locations".

The EPA says it received a report from Crown Lands (which owns the land) on November 17, 2023 relating to air monitoring testing at the site on November 15 which found that, at three monitoring locations, the concentration of asbestos fibres in the air was 0.03 fibres/mL.

According to the clean-up notice, Safework Australia requires a person who conducts a business to ensure that the airborne concentration of asbestos must not exceed 0.01 fibres/mL.

Data from the Bureau of Meteorology, included in the clean-up notice, recorded a westerly wind of 33km/h at 3pm on November 15 and a maximum wind gust of 52km/h west-northwest at 1.33pm.

WSP's asbestos assessors said asbestos-containing materials debris was identified on ground surfaces within the immediate vicinity of two of the monitoring locations where the concentration of fibres in the air was elevated.

According to the clean-up notice, the EPA subsequently received submissions from Jemena that said the company had conducted air quality monitoring on November 27 which had not produced abnormal or concerning readings.

As well, Jemena said unauthorised access to the premises had been restricted; Jemena would continue to inspect the premises with a view to removing loose lying asbestos-containing materials identified on the grounds surrounding the buildings; that it had started the preparation of an asbestos management plan; and that it would work with the EPA "in respect of appropriately mitigating exposure risks".

The EPA's original clean-up notice, issued on December 6, required Jemena to undertake daily air monitoring at three locations at the site and provide results to the EPA daily; to have an asbestos management plan prepared; and for a report to "assess the risk posed by the incident that took place on 15 November 2023 to nearby residential and commercial properties"; as well as other directions.

A subsequent variation to the clean-up notice, issued on December 18, said Jemena had since submitted a report that contained air monitoring results from late November and early December and a suitably qualified person had provided an opinion that any further incidents were unlikely.

The EPA said, however, that it believed "the testing has been conducted in conditions that are less than ideal for the detection of airborne asbestos fibres and that exposure risks have not been appropriately mitigated" and that it believed "further testing is required".

The Western Advocate asked the EPA for clarification as to why it believed the conditions for testing had been less than ideal.

An EPA spokesperson said the sampling for airborne asbestos fibres "was conducted over a short period which was unseasonably wet" and wet fibres are not as likely to be airborne and therefore not able to be detected.

As part of the new conditions from the EPA, Jemena is required to monitor the air at 10 locations at the old gasworks site and provide all monitoring results to the EPA by 5pm daily.

In a statement to the Western Advocate, a Jemena spokesperson said the company "confirms it has been conducting air-monitoring activities at the former Bathurst Gasworks site".

"To date, this activity has found air quality at the site to be within acceptable levels," the spokesperson said.

"Jemena continues to work with Crown Lands - the owners of the site - to end its lease early so that the site can be repurposed.

"While Jemena acquired a long-term lease of the site as part of a broader transaction, we have not operated a gasworks at the site.

"The gasworks activities that were conducted at the site had ceased prior to Jemena acquiring the long-term lease."