Part of Wittenoom problem to remain unburied

Wittenoom’s asbestos-laced racetrack and airstrip will not be remediated as part of work to bury the town’s contaminated infrastructure and buildings underground.

Satellite images on Google Earth show large excavations where the final homes and infrastructure surviving in town have being buried in the hope of reducing the asbestos contamination risk.

A $5.2 million contract was in September 2022 awarded to Thuroona Services to undertake the demolition job.

But Business News understands the scope of that work will not extend to the old horse racing track on the outskirts of town, nor the airstrip at nearby Mulga Downs Station built for the town.

While no physical infrastructure remains at the racetrack, News understands asbestos tailings were used widely for track surfacing, and these concerns have been raised by traditional owners with the Department of Planning, Lands, and Heritage.

A DPLH spokesperson said demolition of all above ground infrastructure had been completed last year.

“The entire Wittenoom asbestos management area covering more than 46,000 hectares is a declared contaminated site,” the spokesperson said.

“This includes the former townsite, racetrack, and airfield.

“It is unlikely to be technically feasible to remediate the total area from contamination, and this will be considered by the Wittenoom Steering Committee.”

The spokesperson said the cemetery had not been disturbed.

Business News last week revealed a report prepared for the state government and hidden for 10 years estimated the clean-up cost of tailings in Wittenoom and Yampire gorges at about $200 million, adjusting for inflation.

That 2013 GHD-produced study recommended excavating pits in the gorges to dump the tailings in and sealing those pits with the excavated material.

The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage last week did not answer whether that remained the state government’s preferred remediation method, nor whether any further work had been undertaken to cost the project.

Business News understands more reports – titled phase two and phase three – have since been compiled and presented to the Wittenoom Steering Committee.

Government ministers and reports over the years have argued companies which created the mess – CSR Limited, Hancock Prospecting, and Wright Prospecting should pay to clean up the tailings.

In 2019 former lands minister Ben Wyatt echoed those calls when he ushered in the end of the former Wittenoom townsite.

But in 1988 former mining minister Jeff Carr said the state government would be liable for the cleanup cost, given the land had reverted back to the Crown in 1979.

Every year the asbestos tailings remain un-remediated they are spread out further into the Pilbara landscape by wet season rains.