Fears over ‘old, brittle’ water main of asbestos

Kim Waters
A council description of an asbestos water main as “old and brittle” has alarmed Ocean Grove residents.
They fear the main under Thacker Street could present a health threat or at least waste their forced investment in road and footpath works.
Thacker Street’s Pamela Brown labelled the main “dangerous”.
“Council told us in a community meeting the main was old and brittle and that’s why they don’t want to park their trucks over it or do any road works near it,” Ms Brown said.
“We have schools buses full of kids parking over that water main every day but council doesn’t care about that. When you hear the word asbestos you shiver and who knows what kind of health impacts the water main could have.”
Ms Brown feared that the user-pays road and footpath works on Thacker Street would be worthless if the main had to be replaced.
“We’ve researched these water mains and they only have a shelf life of 40 to 60 years. What happens to all the money we’ve spent on footpath and road works, which we don’t even want, when Barwon Water has to go in and pull the thing up?
“It’s a waste of our time and money.”
Barwon Water dismissed residents’ safety concerns.
Water systems general manager Carl Bicknell said the main had “no structural issues” and no history of “failure or damage”.
Barwon Water “commonly installed” asbestos cement pipes throughout its service region between 1940 and 1970, he said.
Mr Bicknell did not comment on the main’s shelf life.
Ward councillor Jan Farrell did not return the Independent’s call for comment.