MOUNT COMPASS - A father, concerned that children at the Mount Compass Area School are being exposed to fumes from a nearby store of creosote logs, has had a partial victory but says he is not convinced there is no associated health risk.
Ron Eadie, of Hindmarsh Tiers, has four children who attend the school.
He became concerned about the fumes that can be smelt at the school, which he believed came from the thousands of creosote soaked logs piled at a nearby Landmark depot.
He says the logs are stored within 100m of the school, in breach of Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, which state that they should be at least 200m away, from sites such as schools, to reduce the impact of their odours.
Mr Eadie said he approached Landmark’s head office in Adelaide about the matter but was told the firm would need to “seek legal advice”.
He also approached the Alexandrina Council without success but was determined not to abandon the issue.
“I just couldn’t live with the thought that perhaps one day this could cause cancer in our children,” he said.
The acting principal, Steve Bennett, said the Governing Council received a letter outlining Mr Eadie’s concerns about six weeks ago and took the issue “very seriously”.
Mr Bennett said he contacted the Education Department’s occupational health and safety department and the EPA.
As a result both agencies visited the site on several occasions, with the EPA carrying out tests on the odours at the school.
Mr Bennett said the school then felt it was worth contacting the Health Commission for its assistance as well.
“Most of us have just put up with the smell for years,” he said.
“We thank Ron for raising it (the issue).”
Mr Bennett said that personally he would have noticed the smell on about four or five occasions per year.
He visited the Landmark site last week, along with representatives of the EPA and said he was pleased with the results.
“I have no complaint with Landmark,” he said.
“They have acted with our best interests in mind.”
He said that, by the start of the 2009 school year, Landmark had agreed to reduce the number of creosote logs stored on the site to less than 1000, ensure any logs sent to the Mount Compass site are at least two or three months old (and therefore less odorous) and it would also move the remaining logs as far away as possible from the school and erect shade-cloth barriers around them.
•FROM PAGE 1•
Speaking on ABC Radio last Friday, Brian Roderick from the EPA, conceded that even when the logs were moved, they would still be only about 125m away from the school.
Mr Roderick said he believed Landmark was handling the creosote logs correctly.
He conceded that while the EPA recommended that creosote logs should be stored at least 200m from places such as schools and childcare centres, the logs, when they have been moved to the rear of the Landmark site as promised, will still only be about 125m away from the school.
He said that “in an ideal situation” the EPA would expect the logs to be 200 metres away.
He added that Landmark would not be fined for storing the logs within 200m of the school because it was “only a guideline”.
Mr Roderick said readings taken by the EPA at the school showed that the odours were only “barely detectable” at the site.
He said there had been only one complaint in the 10 years that Landmark had been at the site and that he felt that “some people do over-estimate our power”.
He conceded that the EPA had not investigated any possibility that the odours could cause health problems in the children, stating that that was something the Health Department would do and that he believed that they “didn’t feel it was necessary”.
Mr Bennett said the school had asked the Health Commission to investigate the matter, to see if there was any health concerns but The Times was told by the Health Department on Friday it had no record of any investigation.
Mr Bennett said while the school would be monitoring the situation, he did believe that people “need to keep the issue in perspective”.
Mr Eadie however is not convinced that the problem has been resolved.
“The logs will still be within 200m of the school,” he said. “And no one can tell me whether there is a health risk or not.”
He said he was considering removing his children and sending them to schools in Victor Harbor.
Spokesperson for Landmark Ian Desborough said, “to our knowledge there is no health risk from the fumes.”
“We would be very concerned if there was, because of the effect on our staff,” he said.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter