Soil from the toxic Barangaroo site in Sydney will be dug up, loaded on a cargo ship and dumped in the Illawarra.
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The Mercury can reveal Lend Lease and the Port Kembla Port Corporation have struck a deal to use up to 600,000 tonnes of material from Barangaroo for land reclamation at Port Kembla.
The material is being excavated for a large underground car park at the $6 billion Barangaroo development precinct.
However, the excavation site is peppered with contamination "hot spots" containing high concentrations of copper, zinc, lead and chemicals.
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Lend Lease had earlier planned to use the excavated material elsewhere at Barangaroo or dispose of it at a special landfill.
But under the new deal, the Port Kembla Port Corporation will receive about 200,000 cubic metres of material - about 10 per cent of what's needed for Port Kembla's outer harbour expansion - for free.
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Lend Lease will cover shipping costs but could save millions of dollars by not having to dispose of the excavated dirt elsewhere.
The property giant lodged an application with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) last month to proceed with the new proposal.
Lend Lease, the Port Kembla Port Corporation, the Barangaroo Delivery Authority and the Environment Protection Authority itself yesterday denied any environmental threat to Port Kembla.
"There is no need for alarm," an EPA spokeswoman said.
"This is about the safe reuse of material that meets strict conditions in place [to] protect human health and the environment.
"It is about reusing safe excavated material for productive use in the NSW economy rather than sending it to landfill."
Should the EPA approve Lend Lease's application as expected, the transfer to Port Kembla could begin as early as the end of the month using the specially chartered bulk carrier CSL Atlantic.
The 14,500-tonne vessel would need to make between 20 and 30 round trips to complete the job.
Last year, an investigation of the soil about to be excavated found copper concentration exceeded ecological screening criteria in 53 out of 554 different samples.
Concentrations of the chemical phenanthrene exceeded the same criteria in 52 samples, while anthracene concentrations exceeded the limit in 22 different locations. Zinc concentrations were recorded above the acceptable criteria in 36 samples.
Lend Lease did not detail yesterday how it would ensure none of the contaminated material would be loaded onto the cargo ship but did point to a "rigorous monitoring and testing regime".
An EPA spokeswoman stressed no material would be used at Port Kembla unless it met "strict conditions" to protect human health and the environment.
She noted it would be Lend Lease's responsibility to prevent contaminated material being shipped from Barangaroo.
"Lend Lease is required to complete rigorous sampling and record keeping throughout the process to ensure its compliance," she said.
"The EPA audits these records as part of its normal compliance program. It also conducts site inspections and takes samples at both the source sites and sites where material has been applied to further check that Lend Lease is meeting its obligations under any exemption."
Of the 330,000 cubic metres of earth to be excavated for the car park, some will be deemed too toxic for reuse and be trucked to landfill, an unknown amount will be reserved for Barangaroo's new Headland Park and the remainder, about 200,000 cubic metres, will be shipped to Port Kembla.
"Reuse of suitable material is clearly a more sustainable approach than sending all excavated material to scarce landfill sites around the city," a Lend Lease spokesman said yesterday.
"In addition, Port Kembla provides the option of transporting this suitable material via sea rather than by road, which would remove many thousands of trucks from both the Sydney CBD and Port Kembla.
"The sustainability benefits of this approach are clear."
A spokeswoman for Port Kembla Port Corporation said the idea of using the excavated material at the port "came up during a chance meeting" between it and the Barangaroo Delivery Authority.
"[It] then progressed through Lend Lease," she said.
She confirmed neither party was paying to take or dispose of the material but said Lend Lease would pay transport costs.
"Beneficial reuse of the material will allow an important regional infrastructure project to be created, resulting in job creation and economic benefit," she said.
But the development has surprised Australians for Sustainable Development, an alliance of residents, architects and community groups who have expressed serious concerns about contamination at Barangaroo for the past three years.
Soil, fill and groundwater at the 22ha Barangaroo site is contaminated by total petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, ammonia, cyanide, sulphides and heavy metals.
The worst contamination is found beneath a 2ha area where a major gasworks once operated.
No material from that area will be removed for use at Port Kembla.
Contamination in other parts of the site, including the underground car park location, is thought to be the partial result of land reclamation between the 1950s and 1970s.
Australians For Sustainable Development spokesman John McInerney, a City of Sydney councillor, questioned why most of the material was not being reused at Barangaroo or disposed of at a landfill as first planned.
"It's a good question and I'd like to know the answer," he said.
"This new proposal is all news to us but that's no surprise given Lend Lease has a track record of not being willing to readily supply information."
The Lend Lease spokesman said the EPA and WorkCover had previously conducted reviews of the company's remediation policies.
"These policies and procedures will continue ... throughout the excavation process, with a rigorous monitoring and testing regime in place to ensure the EPA criteria are met," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, the government agency responsible for the development, described the deal as a "mutually beneficial outcome" for Barangaroo and Port Kembla.
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