Liberal Member for Penrith Stuart Ayres today addressed the Parliament on the action taken by the Office of Environment and Heritage in response to the potential contamination of land at a service station in Mulgoa Road Jamisontown.
\”This government has been on the front foot when it comes to the storage of petrol in underground tanks.\” Mr Ayres said today.
\”Land at 92 Mulgoa Road in Jamisontown was found to be contaminated after underground petrol containers were replaced in 2008.
\”When it was discovered that contamination spread off-site, the issue was declared significant enough to warrant regulation under the Contaminated Land Management Act.
\”Since then the owners of 7-Eleven have made themselves available to adjoining residents, they’ve written to the body corporate and arranged a meeting of affected residents for this Saturday 25th February at 9:00am.
\”The EPA has taken up the call and investigated sites on MacNaughton Street to assess the spread of any contamination. Fuel was detected partway along the street, however it is at a depth of approximately 8-9 metres below the surface. It is not anticipated that fuel vapour is likely to reach the surface from this depth.
\”It is highly irresponsible to have a local councillor, whipping up fear among the surrounding residences without any regard to the impact such hype would have on community perceptions of the local area.
\”Given that Ms Guillame represented the previous Labor Government at the last election, the same Labor Government that ignored this issue and other fuel station leaks for over three years I find her actions landing somewhere between hypocrisy and political grandstanding. This is the type of politics the people of Penrith voted against at the last state election.
\”The NSW government has been on the front foot on this issue, approving $6M over three years for the clean-up of contaminated sites, extending the role of the EPA as a regulator of these sites, and providing afurther $450,000 in November to assist specifically with the clean-up of service station sites across NSW.
\”This action by the O’Farrell Government is a significant improvement on the position taken by the previous Labor Government, which failed to include service stations within their clean-up program.
\”This government is equipped like never before to take onfuel leaks like the one we’re experiencing in Jamisontown. I will continue to keep the community informed of new information as it becomes available.\”
