ACT considering suing feds for asbestos clean-up costs

08/06/2012 - The ACT government is considering suing the commonwealth over the cost of cleaning-up asbestos dumped in the territory before self-government.

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Chief Minister Katy Gallagher is exploring legal options after unsuccessfully trying to hold talks with the federal government about contamination at former commonwealth government sites, a spokeswoman for the territory's administration confirmed on Thursday.

In 2010 it was revealed that 90,000 tonnes of soil contaminated by asbestos had been discovered in the North Weston Pond area, which is part of the Molonglo Valley, a new housing area in Canberra.

A further 180,000 tonnes of asbestos-contaminated soil were later discovered at the site.

Some 600,000 cubic metres of contaminated waste has been found at the Eastlake development site.

Much of that waste at Eastlake is believed to have come from the construction of Parliament House.

The ACT government has been frustrated because it says the federal government believes responsibility for cleaning up the contamination now falls on the territory.

The ACT's administration has already spent $30 million cleaning up the North Weston Pond site.

Self-government began in the ACT in 1989. Before then, the federal government governed the territory directly.

Source: AAP

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