Residents next to a west Auckland development say they weren't warned that almost 3000 cubic metres of asbestos was being moved and buried next to their homes.
They say the dust from the site has also coated their houses and contaminated their water tanks but the company responsible says it's done nothing wrong.
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It's a beautiful day in the school holidays but the Tekoronga family is cooped up inside.
Mum Tasha is worried about the amount of asbestos being moved and buried next door. Dust from the site has also clogged their water tanks.
"I feel we don't have reassurance - reassurance that we're safe," she told Newshub.
The area is being used by contractors to dump excess materials from earthworks sites. Last year they uncovered the remains of an old shed containing asbestos at the site that was moved and buried again.
Neighbours say they weren't warned.
"We're not getting any definite dates, definite answers, no clear answers. This is huge what's next to us, that amount of poison," Tekoronga says.
They found out about the asbestos from their neighbours, Rebecca and Vince Hardcastle, who found out from another neighbour.
"She said 'oh just be careful of that site because there's asbestos over there' and of course at that point we stopped the children playing in the grass," Rebecca told Newshub.
Rebecca contacted the Council, worried about their 4-year-old daughter breathing in soil-borne pathogens or asbestos while she was undergoing chemotherapy. She was told the work would be over in nine weeks it wasn't.
"It seems there's two rules - one for regular residents and one for large scale developments," she says.
Dirtworks told Newshub the reason they didn't tell neighbours about the asbestos is because they only discovered it after they'd begun work to strip the topsoil, but neighbours say that's not good enough.
"Oh I think it's shocking, you know. I think they should be notifying us that this sort of thing's going on and telling the neighbourhood, there's children around here," resident Richard Perkovic says.
Dirtworks says it can't stop all dust from leaving the site. As for the asbestos, it's being buried it two-metres deep according to industry standards.
Newshub.
