Cathy Is At The Environmental Coalface
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday June 2, 1995
CATHY Dyer is at the coalface of environmental science. At 33 she is the manager of contaminated sites for the NSW Environmental Protection Agency.
She leads a team of 13 people - including chemical engineers, geologists, hydro geologists, agricultural scientists, statisticians, risk specialists, natural resources experts and soil scientists - who try to ensure that we don't build our homes on former petrol station sites, or our day-care centres close to toxic waste dumps, or graze cows over land contaminated with DDT.
It is her job, statewide, to identify, investigate and either remedy or manage the sites where chemical pollution may present a risk to public health.
Some of this pollution may have taken place decades ago, when industrial practices were unregulated and the dangers of particular chemicals were not properly appreciated. Some of it may still be taking place today.
One of the more recent examples of contamination was a case in Armidale several years ago where a housing subdivision was built on what had been an old timber treatment site.
"When the contamination was found, those 20 families were very distressed," Dyer recalls. "At no stage did we ever discover any actual health effects, but the fear and concern about the possibility long term, plus the fact that the homes which those people had struggled for lost value, presented big problems for the residents."
Eventually the Commonwealth Government stepped in and bought the owners out. It is that sort of disaster that Dyer and her team hope to avoid in future.
To that end she has had plenty to say about proposed new legislation which will update the handling of contaminated sites in this State.
Dyer's background is in applied science. She has a degree for which she studied part-time at the University of Technology, Sydney, majoring in applied chemistry.
She began as an analytical chemist in a lab job, joining the State Pollution Control Commission (as the EPA used to be called) in 1988. Gradually she was given more responsibility and moved up the management ranks.
Last year she was persuaded to apply for the job as manager of contaminated sites. She won the position, and almost doubled her salary.
She now earns more than $60,000 a year. She works about 45 hours a week, sometimes more. The job, she says, is a challenge.
She believes that success lies in consulting widely and resolving the problems to the benefit of as many people as possible.
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald
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