After more than 10 months work and a bill topping $4.25 million, Katoomba tip is almost asbestos-free.
The final work is being done now and it is expected to be fully back in business by the end of the month.
But it has come at a cost. More than $3.6 million was spent removing contaminated material from the site and carting it to Kemps Creek – partly to avoid filling the Blaxland tip and partly because Blaxland’s new landfill cell wasn’t ready.
Then a further $590,000 has been spent capping the remaining soil and concrete on site.
The unexpected, unbudgeted and expensive asbestos removal will have an immediate impact with a number of projects likely to be canned or deferred because of a lack of funds (see story p6).
The latest monthly progress report on safety improvement in the wake of the asbestos investigations warned: “The significant level of funding directed to asbestos management reduces the availability of revenue available for other projects.”
This follows a similar alert issued the previous month that cash reserves had fallen by almost $8 million in a year – from $29.3m in July 2017 to $21.6m in July this year.
“This is partly due to the use of reserves to fund asbestos costs in 2017-2018. It is critical that reserves are rebuilt to ensure there are funds available to manage any future shocks,” the financial report noted.
It also revealed that smaller investments (depleted because of the asbestos work) will severely reduce the income that generates for council over the next year.
“Total investments have been reduced due to expenditure on asbestos remediation and this has impacted the interest income expected to be earnt in 2018-2019 with a budget income of $400K compared to the prior year budget interest income of $890K.”
After months of trucking the waste to Kemps Creek, council sought to cap the rest on site to cut costs and to avoid the risks involved in transporting the asbestos through the Mountains.
SafeWork agreed and council allocated another $437,000 to encapsulate the remaining concrete and soil in a bund built at the tip. This has increased to $591,000.
A spokeswoman for council said in addition to the remediation, revised procedures and practices have been put in place “to ensure the facility remains safe for residents, customers and staff”.
