THE NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and Lake Macquarie City Council have started collecting soil samples from public areas next to housing impacted by lead and slag from the former Pasminco lead smelter.
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The samples were taken from suburbs including Speers Point and Boolaroo.
They will be analysed to identify disposal options for the polluted soil.
The results will be used to determine the range of lead and other heavy metal concentrations in the soil.
This information will help the EPA determine the landfill needed to manage the material safely.
The Newcastle Herald has been publishing an investigative series, called Toxic Truth, which has exposed failure of a government-sanctioned program to clean up residential properties the former Pasminco smelter contaminated.
Last week, the EPA issued a caution and two $1500 fines after a five-year compliance review of Pasminco's 10-year Boolaroo remediation project showed breaches between March 2013 and February 2014.
The review found Pasminco Cockle Creek Smelter Pty Ltd (now in administration) breached licence limits for cadmium, zinc and suspended solids discharged into an unnamed creek leading into Lake Macquarie.
The fines were widely criticised as inadequate.
"In the scheme of things these fines are nothing. A flea bite ... while the community is dealing with the real consequences of decades of polluting," Boolaroo Action Group spokesman Jim Sullivan told the Newcastle Herald.
