By ALAN PERROTT
An illegal asbestos dump in Penrose has been buried, but that may not save land developers Southpark Corporation from legal action.
The threat follows Friday's discovery of large amounts of dangerous asbestos - publicised in the Weekend Herald - at an unauthorised dump on Hugo Johnston Drive by officers from the Auckland City Council and Auckland Healthcare.
The council ordered an immediate end to dumping and gave Southpark two days to bury the small hill of asbestos waste under at least 600mm of clean soil.
Auckland Healthcare wants the site surrounded by a fence and warning signs.
The remedial work was carried out on Saturday and council staff inspected it yesterday.
David Frith, Auckland City manager of environmental effects, said that now the immediate danger had passed the council would consider charges against Southpark Corporation.
He expects a decision on legal action before Christmas.
Southpark chief executive John Sax is overseas, and a company representative said no one else was authorised to comment on the asbestos dump or the possibility of legal action.
Mr Sax has said asbestos is an emotive issue and gave assurances that the area's asbestos levels were lower than those encountered by people during their daily trip to and from work.
The discovery of the dump followed an impassioned plea for action from Friends of the Earth co-director Bob Tait, who presented Auckland City councillors with a small amount of raw asbestos he had found at the dump.
Mr Tait said there could be thousands of tonnes of asbestos on the site and the people of Auckland would have been let down if action was not taken.
"These people are paid to protect us, and that hasn't been happening here. How much does it take until they take action against this sort of thing?"
Friends of the Earth is considering lodging a formal complaint against Southpark with the Auckland City and Auckland Regional Councils and requesting immediate legal action.
This is Southpark's second failure to comply with resource consent regulations in four weeks.
On November 29, work was halted on a Hugo Johnston Drive building site when a contractor employed by Southpark removed excavated and dumped asbestos material without permission.
Hugo Johnston Drive sits on top of an asbestos waste dump used by James Hardie from 1938 to 1983.
Charges likely despite asbestos dump cleanup
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