Pasadena
Environmental assessment
The former Pasadena landfill site, located at Lot 101 Port Lincoln Boulevard, Pasadena was historically used as a quarry and subsequently filled with general and construction and demolition waste between 1959 and 1962.
The EPA first wrote to residents of approximately 60 properties in this area as a result of an historic file review of the former landfill site.
In order to determine if the site posed any risk, Mitcham Council undertook assessment work in 2018 and this indicated that landfill gas including methane and other trace gases were detected at one boundary of the former landfill. This related to an elevated methane level found in a deeper soil vapour bore at the landfill boundary along Quinton Court.
As a precautionary approach, in 2019 the EPA offered landfill gas screening to 8 residential properties in the vicinity to determine if landfill gas posed a risk to neighbouring properties. A total of 5 property owners accepted the testing offer, and three declined.
Service pits on Quinton Court and Thiselton Crescent were also screened for methane impacts as a part of the EPA assessment.
The landfill gas screening work (undertaken by Tonkin Consulting in 2019) did not identify a risk from landfill gas at any of the tested properties.
The EPA communicated this directly to residents whose homes were tested and to residents in the surrounding area.
In 2020, the EPA commissioned Fyfe (environmental consultant) to undertake a desktop review of all known environmental reports in relation to the landfill site. This work was commissioned by the EPA as part of its regulatory decision-making process.
The Fyfe report observed: 'Residents living near a former dump in Adelaide’s south could be at risk of asphyxiation or exploding gas'. This conclusion was based on the information already known to the EPA and which had resulted in the assessment work undertaken by Tonkin Consulting.
The EPA would like to remind adjacent residents that groundwater (bore water) near this site may be contaminated and should not be used for any purpose, unless it has been tested.
The EPA has recently agreed with a voluntary site contamination proposal provided by the Mitcham Council. The council is continuing assessment work to define the site contamination resulting from the historic landfill activities. The reports will be made available through the EPA Public Register once the work is finished.
Information about further assessment work which commenced in early April 2021 is available on the council’s website.
