3000 tonnes of sand for Willowbank

IPSWICH Councillor David Pahlke is angry 3000 tonnes of contaminated sand from a massive oil spill off Cape Moreton earlier this year has been sitting in a Willowbank facility for nearly eight months.

The contaminated soil was transported to the Ti Tree Bioenergy facility at Willowbank in March after the ship the Pacific Adventurer suffered two hull punctures and leaked 250 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on to beaches.

Cr Pahlke said he was frustrated the oil-contaminated sand was taken to the facility and would now be buried in landfill at the site - despite government authorities assurances it would be safe.

“Why take it all the way from the coast to here? There are proper contaminated waste facilities in Brisbane; I don't see why it should be taken here,” Cr Pahlke said.

“It just raises so many questions - how safe is it going to be in landfill? Why has it taken so long for the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) to make a decision on what to do with it?

“It's going to landfill now, but if it was always safe to go to landfill they should have done it straight away.

“I'm not criticising Veolia Environmental Services and their Ti Tree facility, because it is world class, I just don't think we should be a dumping ground.”

He said when the Ti Tree Bioengery site was built it was DERM's Environmental Sciences manager Gary O'Connor who said the contaminated sand - which has been transported to the site until June this year - was safe to be buried at the site.

“A final decision on the disposal options for the oil-contaminated sand was made once the State Government was satisfied that no more oil-contaminated sand was likely to be removed from Moreton Island,” Mr O'Connor said.

“A sampling program was developed. The samples were analysed at an accredited laboratory and compared with the licence conditions for the Veolia landfill. All samples met the licence conditions for the landfill.”

Veolia Environmental Services Resource Recovery Services general manager Chris Alexander said the landfill site was safe.

“We received confirmation from Maritime Safety Queensland that DERM's testing said it was safe to go into our landfill two weeks ago,” Mr Alexander said.

“It's in an engineered controlled landfill site that is sealed off.”