Project Overview
The 60 hectare Islington Workshop Site opened in 1882 as the main locomotive depot for Adelaide and until 1997 a wide variety of activities were carried out. Workshops which operated on the site included a foundry, electroplating shop, paint shop, blacksmith shop and numerous fabrication workshops. Industrial waste, including large quantities of friable asbestos generated from these operations, was dumped over the northern section of the site.
The contaminated site, which was directly adjacent to residential housing, was some 12 hectares in size. In addition to asbestos the landfill site also contained significant levels of heavy metals and hydrocarbons and other materials that exceeded safe levels for residential and industrial use.
These included:
- Asbestos insulation, foundry wastes (sand and slag), electroplating wastes, waste oils, miscellaneous drummed materials, scrap metal and demolition rubble
- Large quantities of friable asbestos (predominantly blue asbestos) Class 1 Carcinogen
- Heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, As)
- Petroleum Hydrocarbons (localised)
- Localised cyanide (drummed) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons
The once highly contaminated land, which posed potentially significant longterm health risks to the local community, is now full remediated. The site has been landscaped and handed over to the local council for use as a significant public park.
The solution of this project involved consolidation of the contaminated fill material on the site into a repository capped by a metre of clean soil on an area less than half of the footprint of the originally contaminated dump site. This is a safe, practical and cost-effective solution for a safe environment for nearby residents and workers.
