The NSW environment watchdog sat on a report for four years linking elevated levels of lead in children’s blood to current mining, and promised mining companies they would not do any “finger-pointing”, new documents tabled in state parliament show.
The documents include internal emails released under freedom of information laws that show the scientist who produced the report into lead exposure in Broken Hill was at one point texting the Environment Protection Authority every two days asking when it would be published.
According to an email from a manager summarising her briefing to the mining companies, when the agency did release the report, it told them the EPA would “quietly load it onto the LeadSmart website and not tell anyone”, and said they would ensure there was “no fanfare or media release” and that they were “not doing any finger-pointing at the mines”.
The NSW Greens said the documents, tabled in the state parliament last week, exposed a “concerning culture” within the EPA, with the party’s mining spokesperson, Cate Faehrmann, expressing alarm that it had taken four years before the research was finally published in late 2023, and accusing the EPA in parliament of suppressing it.
Prof Mark Taylor delivered his report summarising all of the existing published scientific research on environmental lead risks at Broken Hill, where there has been long-term mining of the metal, to the EPA in 2019.
Emails show lead mining companies in Broken Hill were given access to the report and its findings at least a year before it was made available to the general public.
A NSW EPA spokesperson said the community was provided with the draft report in 2020.
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Taylor was commissioned to lead the review by the Broken Hill Environmental Lead Program, which was established under the EPA in 2015 as part of a $13m state government commitment to address the issue of lead exposures and elevated blood lead levels in children in Broken Hill.
The report stated the level of lead in the blood of almost half (49%) of children under five and more than three-quarters of Indigenous children (76%) in the town remained elevated, and found the available research made clear that both past and current emissions from mining operations were the “leading source” of environmental exposure in the western NSW town.
While the report did not look at the harms related to elevated levels of lead in children’s blood, the NSW government’s LeadSmart website states unborn babies, infants and young children are most at risk of harmful health effects from lead, particularly on “brain development, which may cause behaviour and learning problems that can last a lifetime”.
The documents, which were released to a Mudgee community group opposing proposals for a lead mine in their region, have revealed the email correspondence between Taylor and EPA officials beginning in March 2022 when he begins to “chase up” when his report would be made publicly available.
Taylor eventually became so frustrated that he wrote in a 28 June 2022 email: “Eventually, I will just send it to the library – it’s becoming so old it’s embarrassing it’s not out.”
The EPA officials acknowledged it was a “really important piece of work” and apologised to Taylor for all the delays, blaming the “bureaucratic tangle when the EPA restructured” as the reason for the delay.
In August 2022, officials were planning to have the report published before further emails in September and October cited the “need to socialise the report” with the mining companies and “understand any concerns they might have” before it was published.
The documents show Taylor was asked to make a presentation to the mining companies which he said he was “happy to do” but noted that “to the best of my knowledge, it’s been circulated previously to the miners and in all honesty, there’s nothing in here that they don’t already know or ought to know”.
The documents show that a meeting with lead mining companies CBH and Perilya went ahead on 3 November and managers noted it “went well” but “we [BHELP] have a ways to go to gain their trust”.
In an email on 9 January 2023 the same manager wrote: “I think we will have to push the mines and get the report out.”
A senior EPA official wrote to the new EPA CEO in March 2023: “I understand that the mining companies are also particularly sensitive about the report and would prefer that we didn’t publish it … they have pretty much refused to engage, other than to say that they would prefer they weren’t published.”
When EPA managers begin discussing a media strategy, emails show, they noted that the timing of the Cadia goldmine parliamentary inquiry was an “issue”.
A manager writes in another reply: “when we say ‘release’ we mean quietly load it onto the LeadSmart website and not tell anyone”.
On 26 October the manager sought permission to publish the report, noting: “I am now receiving texts from Mark Taylor every 2 days asking where it’s up to.”
The emails also reveal the EPA offered to brief the mines in advance of publishing the report, and told them the report would be published to the website with “no proactive media,” and that holding lines have been prepared in the event of any media, which “reference the long-standing and complex nature of the problem”, and “we are not doing any finger-pointing at the mines”.
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The manager also stated “we’ll give the mines a heads-up if we receive any media requests”.
Faehrmann tabled some of the emails on Friday 29 August as part of NSW budget estimates.
Faehrmann told the chamber: “What these emails document is a concerning culture, to be honest, potentially within the EPA, of suppressing an important report like this because it is going to offend the mines.”
The EPA CEO, Tony Chappel, responded to Faehrmann: “I understand Covid, the peer review process and some other elements all contributed to that delay. As soon as I became aware of this, when I became head of this agency, we moved expeditiously to brief the Minister and release it.”
Chappel said he couldn’t support Faehrmann’s “characterisation”.
Faehrmann said the suppression was important because it occurred at the same time as Bowden’s lead, zinc and silver mine in Mudgee was being assessed, and also meant it was not available to the parliamentary inquiry investigating the impacts of heavy metals mining, including lead.
It’s not the first time concerns have been raised about the EPA failing to make information public.
Guardian Australia revealed last year the regulator had known for more than decade that producers of a type of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants such as lead and asbestos into the community.
Faehrmann told the Guardian: “Instead of taking action to protect babies and young children from toxic lead exposure, government officials have tied themselves in knots to protect a dangerous industry.
“It’s outrageous that the mining companies had access to this report for at least a year while it was withheld from an upper house committee investigating the impacts of heavy metals mining, including lead.
“Now that we know how long they sat on this for, the government must immediately report on its progress towards implementing everything that Mark Taylor said was needed to reduce blood lead levels.”
A NSW EPA spokesperson said the authority “refutes the suggestion that the Broken Hill lead report was suppressed”.
“The community was provided with the draft report in 2020 through the Broken Hill Environmental Lead Program steering committee, which included the Broken Hill Aboriginal community and the stakeholder community group convened by Broken Hill Council,” an EPA spokesperson said.
“The draft was also shared with other government agencies and industry, which is common practice.”
