When people expect things to be going wrong the rumours soon run free over any issue, and the latest at Eastern Creek concerned an Environmental Protection Authority decision to excavate portions of the mound running along the western boundary of the property, which if you believed the phone calls, was to be removed back to the height of the original earth mound.

The problem - and one appears to exist - was brought to the attention of the New South Wales Department of Sport and Recreation, which leases the facility, by the ARDC (Australian Racing Drivers Club - lessee of Eastern Creek). The problem was then referred to the EPA, which has begun an excavation to determine the cause of the problem.

The ARDC's complaint was based on smoke and unpleasant fumes issuing from the mound, behind and to the south of the control tower.

The ARDC has held concerns over the mounds from the very beginning, and part of the delay in their takeover of the track was due to extended negotiations with the NSW Government, to ensure that a clause was inserted in the lease absolving the ARDC of any responsibility for the mound or its contents at the time of takeover.

"How do we know what's in those mounds," an ARDC board member stated at the time. "We don't know, and we don't want to be held responsible if our patrons start to glow in the dark in twenty years time."

Certainly the mound has a smell of rotting garbage at times, implying that there may be worse than the inert waste which the mound's license requires. Inert waste is determined to be clean fill plus any building and construction materials, including bricks, concrete, paper, plastics, glass, metal or timber, but cannot include asbestos.

The excavation work began on Thursday, February 12, the morning after the February 11th street meeting.