Residents of Railway Parade in Balmoral remain concerned about possible asbestos in the road material despite council tests coming back negative.
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Steve Harrison contacted council earlier this year to express his concerns after what he described as ongoing issue with dust problems since the road was resurfaced.
He lives on the Southern end of the road which is dirt and has lived at his property for the past 42 years.
Mr Harrison said he had spoken to neighbours who were also concerned about the dust.
“We haven’t complained before to council, as we accept that we are living in the countryside and a dirt road is one of the conditions that we must endure, but it was never like this before the road was re-surfaced,” he said.
Council re-sheeted Railway Parade in September 2015 using materials from a registered supplier and the road was also graded in March 2017.
He also sent a sample of the road dust to the University of NSW mineral testing lab.
Mr Harrison said the results came back that there were no heavy metals in the the dust sample but there was 2.4 per cent asbestos.
He believes the road needs to be closed to through traffic while further testing and remediation work is undertaken.
A council spokesman said staff had inspected the road and commissioned an independent hygienist to undertake an onsite inspection including air monitoring of the road.
“The results of these tests proved negative,” he said.
“Council has however committed to undertaking further testing of the road material and is currently awaiting these test results from an independent laboratory.”
The spokesman said any further action would be determined by these test findings.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has also been made aware of residents’ concerns.
The council spokesman said the EPA had been kept informed of what action had been taken since the claims were first made.
Another concern for Mr Harrison was when washing the solar panels on his roof covered in dust, he found that the water was turning black and “ this dust was fine enough to get into my lungs”.
He said he dried out this washing water, collected the black dust and this was the first test sample that he sent away to be tested
Mr Harrison said he had also had two more tests sent away to be analysed.
“We really want to sort this out. We won’t accept being brushed off with platitudes. We want real and thorough scientific testing done, just like the test we had done at the Uni of NSW,” he said.