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Posted: 2023-06-01 05:42:30

A former MP has raised concerns about a legislative failure to deal with old service stations and the pollution they cause. 

Former NSW police minister Ted Pickering said a petrol station site at Stanwell Park in the northern Illawarra had been abandoned for about 20 years and poor regulation meant nobody was fixing the site.

Mr Pickering said it was one of hundreds of old petrol stations that hadn't been cleaned up because no legislation existed to compel owners to remediate the site, or even notify the NSW Environment Protection Authority of potential pollution.

He said there was an enormous problem which could only be solved if the NSW government faced up to its responsibility and changed the law.

Petrol stations of the future could be retail and community hubs.()

He said the petroleum industry was the real polluter and should pay for the decommissioning of petrol stations.

"As of 9 September 2019, the EPA website of contaminated sites reveals that there are 892 redundant petrol stations throughout NSW," Mr Pickering said.

"It is estimated that within 12 years, [electric vehicles] will see the closure of about a further 3,000 petrol stations."

Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketing Association chief executive Mark McKenzie said the landholder was responsible for cleaning up the site once a service station closed and the industry had tight standards in place. 

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