TasWater’s Review (of a scientific paper on identification of the sources of metal (lead) contamination in drinking waters in north-eastern Tasmania) has been exposed for being the typical kneejerk response from Tasmanian Government authorities that Tasmanian’s are so accustomed to.
TasWater’s review, like so many other flawed and deficient Government reports on issues concerning metal contamination of raw drinking water or reticulated drinking water supplies has been nothing less than a failed PR exercise.
Could Mark Veitch from the DHHS, Michael Brewster from TasWater please explain to the public and Minister Michael Ferguson how such a flawed review could have been written?
Below are a couple of extracts from Paul Harvey and Mark Taylor’s ( Professor Dept of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science & Engineering, Macquarie University ) review:
Professionalism
In section 4.1 it reads (page 13),
“the use of the term Cesspit to describe part of a water supply system lacks a professional and objective
approach to the study”.This is the name given to the inflow area above the Pioneer Dam, which the community uses to identify the site
and is meaningful to them.We were disappointed that after conversations with TasWater about our willingness to ensure the reviewers
understood the approach and purpose of the study, these offers were not taken up. If they had been, then some of
the aforementioned issues would not have arisen. Misunderstandings around the geo-location of data could have
been rectified in one of two ways (1) plotting up of the GPS locations of the data (Supplementary Data 2) using
Google Earth; (2) Contacting the authors for clarification.
Conclusion
Based upon the evidence presented here, it is clear that TasWater’s review has not added anything new or material
to the Harvey et al. (2015) study. Indeed, it has merely confused the matter. The review contains several
inaccurate and contradictory statements with regard to the Pioneer water scheme; contains poor understanding of
the methods and data quality used in the study; and displays a weak grasp of the utility of lead isotopes, which are
critical to the source apportionment aspect in the Harvey et al. (2015) study.
Letter to TasWater CEO Michael Brewster et al …
Sent: Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:32:09 +1000
Subject: Harvey et al. (2015) response to the TasWater review
Dear All:
Please find attached our comments on the TasWater review of our recent study on the source of lead in Pioneer, Tasmania.
We have attached the original study, the supplementary data and the Taswater review for your convenience ( Download below ).
Thank you,
Mark Taylor and Paul Harvey
Professor Mark Patrick Taylor
Dept of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science & Engineering
Macquarie University
Download:
a href=”http://cdn-src.tasmaniantimes.com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/Harvey_Handley_Taylor-2015(combined).pdf”>http://cdn-src.tasmaniantimes.com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/Harvey_Handley_Taylor-2015(combined).pdf
Response_to_TasWater_Review_-_Harvey_et_al._(2015)_.pdf
WaterRA_Review_of_Harvey_et_al_Final.pdf
(Download problems are being rectified).
