6 December 2010

Chiefly fury at Molonglo asbestos debacle

| johnboy
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At the risk of invoking Godwin’s Law the ACT Government often resembles the last days of the Reich.

Down in the bunker formations assumed to be 10,000 men strong were grandly pushed around on the map with the supreme confidence that out in the real world matters would resemble what was on the chart table.

In reality 200 old men and young boys would shuffle into position to try and oppose a soviet tank army.

In a similar vein the ABC brings word of trouble at the the Molonglo development of the new suburbs of Wright and Coomb where something of the order of 100,000 tonnes of asbestos contaminated soil has been discovered rather late in the day.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope wants answers on how the dump went undetected.

“I would not have agreed to this project, the Cabinet would certainly not have approved the project if it had come to us as say a $37, $38, $40 million job,” he said.

The project’s major feature is the North Weston pond, designed to help with stormwater retention.

But that is now in jeopardy.

The downside of being in power for a decade is that everything is either your fault, or the fault of failed agencies that could have been fixed over that decade.

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Years ago an asbestos contractor told me that the area that is now Amaroo used to be an asbestos dump and that the old Canberra Hospital was riddled with it.

Rawhide Kid Part311:57 am 06 Dec 10

Buzz2600 said :

troll-sniffer +1

Best thing they could do now is cover it over and re-plant Deek’s Forest on top of it. Win-win.

+1

troll-sniffer +1

Best thing they could do now is cover it over and re-plant Deek’s Forest on top of it. Win-win.

Trunking symbols11:04 am 06 Dec 10

I remember a story on Seven’s Sunday Night earlier this year where a reporter – in a full HAZMAT body suit – visited Wittenoom and was reporting to camera. A local on a bike, and in normal clothes with no helmet, abused the reporter. The local looked like he was in his 50s and seemed perfectly normal and healthy. Could it be that the dangers of asbestos have been exaggerated?

troll-sniffer10:49 am 06 Dec 10

ah yes the old “all asbestos is dangerous” furphy.

methinks it would be time far better spent to run an assessment of the actual risks of proceeding with the project, how to manage the exposed asbestos while leaving the bulk under the farnarkling ground where it won’t do any harm.

but the bandwagon is large and has lots of room to hook people in as it slides merrily by, blanking out the last vestiges of commonsense left in the debate.

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