The $150m solution to Broken Hill’s pollution crisis
In response to the review, the NSW Environment Protection Agency (EPA) proposed three future funding options. The first was to continue the existing program at a cost of $1.8 million a year. The agency said this would ensure child blood lead levels did not worsen but were unlikely to improve, and the funding would need to continue indefinitely. Boosting funding to $5.7 million a year – the EPA’s recommended option – would increase the number of homes funded for lead removal from 20 to 180 a year indefinitely. This would enable more proactive and targeted remediation, including for up to 90 homes housing women who were pregnant. The “best practice” option proposed involved spending $11.5 million a year for 13 years ($149.5 million) to fully remediate public spaces and 500 homes a year until the environmental risks are removed. This would ensure “all children will live in a lead-safe house in the city of Broken Hill”, the agency wrote.