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Cairnlea Estate

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Background

The Department of Defence operated a 400-hectare explosives factory in the Albion area.

The factory produced a wide range of explosives from the 1930s until 1986, this production coupled with the environmental practices of the day led to contamination of land and groundwater.

The land has undergone a series of audits involving testing, sampling, monitoring and ultimately remediation or clean up under Victoria’s environmental audit system.

This significant work resulted in portions of the land becoming available for use in the Cairnlea residential estate.

Cairnlea Estate has been established on areas where Certificates or Statements of Environmental Audit have been issued, which indicates the land is suitable for its new use.

All housing areas have been issued with Certificates that state the land is suitable for all uses including residential.

EPA Victoria is satisfied the Certificates and Statements of Environmental Audit for the Cairnlea Estate are appropriate, and the sites are safe for the uses indicated by the Certificates and Statements.

EPA investigation into audit

In 2007 EPA received a number of complaints about the audit of part of the estate. EPA investigated the complaints and subsequently had the audit reports for that section of the site reviewed by an independent interstate authority. This external review confirmed EPA’s review and the initial audit outcomes.

However, to provide further assurance, EPA sought follow up soil testing in those areas, which confirmed the results detailed in the original audit.

Further testing and results

Due to some procedural issues associated with those earlier tests, EPA conducted soil resampling of sections of the estate.

The result from those samples validates the previous work conducted by the environmental auditor and site assessor for the site.

This confirms the original findings that the site is unlikely to pose an unacceptable risk to either current or future users of the area.

EPA resampling found the average zinc levels within the audit area are less than half the Ecological Investigation Level trigger point, which is 200mg/kg.

The Health Investigation Level for concentration of zinc is 7000mg/kg. Resample results in the audited area at Cairnlea are 70 times less than this trigger point.

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