Toxic Tas Water

Our community at Pioneer welcomed yesterday’s spring equinox with a beautiful show of flowers. But the townsfolk hide a heavy heart. Our drinking water is toxic. The only access to pure drinking water is from a communal tank located at the centre of town.

Pioneer was disconnected from its major water supply, the Frome Dam, in 2008. But it was not until November, 2012 – following our water alert for lead contamination – that residents were advised of this disconnection. Pioneer’s water quality had regressed from a non-potable supply, which, if boiled, was safe to drink, to a non-potable supply which cannot be consumed under any circumstances.

Test results for lead, extracted from TasWater under a Right To Information request in August, 2013, show the following results: Pioneer Dam Sediment, 416 ug/L; Pioneer Dam Outlet, 1690 ug/L; and, Open Channel Sediment, 513 ug/L. The guideline health value for lead is 10 ug/L. These results were not disclosed to the community despite repeated submissions prior to the Right to Information request. Two further Right to Information requests are pending – one to TasWater and one to TasIrrigation. (The Right to Information requests were submitted, on behalf of the Pioneer community, by Mr. Kim Booth of the Greens.)

It is expected that TasWater and/or TasIrrigation will be required to provide evidence to prove that the act of disconnecting Pioneer from the Frome Dam did not cause increased lead levels in the town drinking water. And the Tasmanian Director of Public Health, Mr. Roscoe Taylor, may be called upon to explain why he did not direct TasWater to provide blood tests for the residents.

In a town meeting in April, 2013, TasWater (then, Ben Lomond Water) indicated their preference to transition Pioneer to rainwater tanks. TasWater advised that an amendment to Tasmanian legislation was required before this could happen. TasWater assured residents they were indeed lobbying the Tasmanian government on this front. A representative for the Tasmanian Director of Public Health echoed TasWater’s preference; and residents were assured that Dr. Roscoe Taylor was actively lobbying the Tasmanian state government for an amendment to the appropriate legislation.

At the same meeting, April, 2013, the residents of Pioneer agreed to a transition to rainwater tanks, so long as it were coupled with a reticulated service for fire-fighting and general purpose needs (charged at a nominal rate). In the weeks that followed, seventy-five percent of households signed a petition to the same effect. This petition, which also stated its support for the proposed legislative amendment, was sent to TasWater and to each member of the Tasmanian parliament.

However, a parliamentary statement by the Tasmanian government on June 26, 2013, made it crystal clear that an amendment to legislation is unnecessary, and that the transition to rainwater tanks at Pioneer is possible under the Act. Furthermore, the statement advised that this state-of -play had been communicated to TasWater previously (at an unstated date). Pioneer residents are yet to receive a reply from Bryan Green’s office with the exact date for when this advice was provided to TasWater.

Five months along from the public meeting in April, and TasWater have failed to deliver rainwater tanks to the residents of Pioneer. But TasWater continue to charge for the toxic water. Residents were disturbed to notice on their most recent bill, in August, that the quarterly ‘service charges’ were raised from $41.37 to $53.87. Residents are presently being charged for their water use, too: water meters were installed at Pioneer in 2012, and TasWater see no reason to discontinue this charge.

The timeframe for TasWater to provide safe drinking water at Pioneer seems to be open-ended. Some townsfolk speculate that it may be within the powers of the Tasmanian Director of Public Health to insert a deadline.

Pioneer’s most recent written communication from TasWater was on August 6, 2013, wherein it was stipulated that a full (100%) community take-up of the yet unknown proposal will be required if it is to proceed. It is reasonable to assume that such an inflexible plan may prove to be problematic – if and when TasWater choose to apply it.

A letter was sent to TasWater on June 2 on behalf of an elderly resident of Pioneer who suffers with multiple sclerosis. The resident requested a rainwater tank, so he must not carry, daily, drinking water from the communal rainwater tank. TasWater responded to his letter three months later, on September 5. The letter states:

‘…we are prepared to supply an individual tank on your property, the ownership of which remains with TasWater. Responsibility for filling the tank and any associated plumbing and electrical infrastructure and work required, rests with you.’

In effect, TasWater have offered this Old Age Pensioner a rainwater tank which cannot be used to collect rainwater – unless he first enters, and subsequently wins, Tattslotto.

Looking at the broader picture as it relates to a safe drinking water outcome for Pioneer, a letter from the CEO of TasWater, Mr Brewster, September 13, to Mr. Mike Gaffney MLC, states :

‘As you may appreciate the service replacement process is new and therefore it needs to be undertaken with due care and diligence. For example, advice to date does not support the use of individual contracts under section 61 of the Water and Sewerage Industry Act 2008. However, an alternative approach may be possible and is being fully explored.’

Mr. Brewster’s letter sets alarm bells ringing because it is contrary to the position of the Leader of Government Business in the Lesgislative Council, Mr. Farrell. During the Legislative Council sitting on June 23, some three months ago, Mr. Farrell, in response to a question from Ms. Rattray MLC, stated:

‘Section 61 agreements are contracts made between a regulated entity – Ben Lomond Water [TasWater] – and individual customers… This existing provision could be used by Ben Lomond Water [TasWater] for arranging the service changes which are supported by the Director of Public Health. Please note that this information has been communicated to Ben Lomond Water [TasWater] and all relevant industry regulators. Under the Water and Sewerage Industry Act 2008 as it currently stands, there are no constraints on Ben Lomond Water [TasWater] for providing its customers with rainwater tanks.’

Time will tell if the Tasmanian government and TasWater are on the same page.

And TasWater recently visited most households at Pioneer – not all, mysteriously – to conduct an audit. The Public Relations Manager for TasWater, Mr. Titmus, stated that a decision had not been made about Pioneer. Although Mr. Titmus refused to provide me, and others, with a timeline for a remedy, he did tell one privileged resident that it was expected that Pioneer would have rainwater tanks within 12 months.

This begs the question: is it reasonable for TasWater to take 1 year and 10 months to install rainwater tanks to 45 houses? Keep in mind that TasWater are pocketing a service fee and a water usage charge (via water meters) from Pioneer’s residents. Residents who have tried to resist these charges for lead-contaminated water have been threatened by TasWater via a debt collection agency.

Meanwhile, the residents of Pioneer are beginning to buckle under the stress. There are reports that several residents are once again drinking the lead-contaminated water – this time with the knowledge that it is toxic – too battle-weary to resist any longer.

And I have spoken with Pioneer folk who can do little to prevent tears welling, as they talk of the town’s plight and their own personal struggle with, what even the most unassuming of us now understand, is first and foremost a Tasmanian corporation.

The spring equinox greeted the brave residents of Pioneer with a wink: we were not forgotten. But with a future so uncertain, who could blame us for feeling heartbroken.

*Tim Slade (b. 1976) lives at Pioneer, Tasmania. He graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1998 with a Bachelor of Education (Primary). Tim placed 2nd in the 2012 Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival Award for Humorous Verse, and was a finalist in the 2012 Janice M. Bostok Haiku Award. Tim’s poetry and essays have been published in Tasmanian Sagacity, Famous Reporter, Koori Mail, Tasmanian Times and Cricket Poetry Award – Best Poems of ’09. Tim suffers from a chronic illness known as multiple chemical hyper-sensitivity (MCHS), and since 2004 he has lived on a Disability Support Pension. Tim has spent much of 2013 lobbying TasWater and the Tasmanian government to provide safe drinking water to Pioneer, where a ‘Do Not Consume’ alert for lead contamination has been active since 2012.

• Pete Godfrey, Golden Valley: Tasmania is becoming a backwoods, nothing clean green and clever here, just toxic rivers and legacy sites from mining activities, hidden from view by signs warning of unspecified hazards.

This is an excerpt from a law made in 1952. It appears that lawmakers in those days thought that water was an important commodity that needed to be clean and safe to drink and use.

What has happened now, as we hear from the good folk of Pioneer is that water is now deemed fine as long as it appears to be water.

If the water authority in 2013 cannot manage to do what the water authorities in 1952 were required to do where are we?

Are we a first world society that prides itself on making life better and more enriching or are we going backwards at an incredible rate.

Have we reverted to a third world state where drinking water is a gamble? Remembering that some of the toxins in water are not just dangerous to drink, the largest organ in our body ( the skin) takes in many pathogens and metals if we bathe in toxic water. What effect does toxic water have on the plants we water them with, will plants take up lead, cadmium and whatever else is in the water and themselves become toxic to eat?

Why should anyone be required to pay for the supply of water that does not even meet the standards required over 60 years ago?

If the above clause is to be adhered to those who are forced to pay water rates and charges must be supplied with clean wholesome water in the pipes that connect to their houses. Not in a tank somewhere in the town.

Tasmania is becoming a backwoods, nothing clean green and clever here, just toxic rivers and legacy sites from mining activities, hidden from view by signs warning of unspecified hazards.

Will the government force the water authorities to fix the problem, not bloody likely unless we all harass them right up to the next election. We need to make sure it is fixed before the election not after.

Good luck to those unfortunate enough to have water pipes laid on to their houses.