In response to questioning in state parliament last month, the EPA released results of soil testing conducted at childcare centres in Broken Hill on multiple occasions between 2015 and 2025. The tests found levels above the national guideline of 300 milligrams per kilogram at 10 of the 13 facilities.
The EPA said it contacted the centres that recorded elevated levels and offered them remediation. However, only four of those centres chose to have remediation work carried out.
Criticism has centred on the EPA's decision not to inform parents directly. An EPA spokesperson told the ABC that providing results and recommendations to site owners was standard procedure, adding: "For privacy reasons, it is standard procedure for education operators to have direct communication with parents and families."
Greens MP and mining spokesperson Cate Faehrmann has called for a full investigation. "How can our Environment Protection Authority receive information that childcare centres have 10 times the level of lead in the soil that is safe and not do a single thing but tell the [childcare] operator?" she said.
"This warrants a full investigation of how the EPA has been conducting testing in Broken Hill and what information they have and how they've acted on it. If we can't trust the agency that is there to monitor and regulate contamination, then who can we trust on this?"
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant also expressed concern. "We would have wanted to know about this; I would have been extremely concerned about the issue," Dr Chant said, stating that NSW Health was unaware of the results.
According to NSW Health and the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, exposure to lead can cause learning disabilities, behavioural problems, slow or abnormal growth, poor coordination, and hearing problems. Children under five are particularly vulnerable because their brains are still developing and they absorb more lead than adults.