Approaching one decade since the original and ongoing alert for lead (Pb) in 2012, TasWater are delivering bottled water to four homes in Pioneer.
One resident’s drinking water, tested by TasWater three months ago, is at more than three times the Australian Health Guideline Value. The result was 34.5 ug/L, where the Australian Guideline Value is 10 ug/L.
This resident says that TasWater’s John J Murray did not actively suggest she seek a blood test for lead (Pb), therefore she did not think it was necessary to have a blood test. To achieve a valid result from a blood test for lead (Pb), the test must be carried out shortly after the time of exposure to lead (Pb), within one or two months. This critical time has elapsed for this resident.
TasWater’s retiring CEO, Mike Brewster (2017, Pioneer Hall).
Three other homes at Pioneer have tested at elevated levels for lead (Pb), beyond the Australian Health Guideline Value. Residents are awaiting the results from TasWater’s most recent quarterly testing.
These results at Pioneer are clarification that the residents continue to be at risk of lead poisoning from their TasWater-installed rainwater tanks.
There has not been a public comment by the Director of Public Health, Dr Mark Veitch.
TasWater have conducted quarterly testing at Pioneer since late 2019, when twelve homes, one-third of the town, were found to be at risk from the drinking water drawn from their TasWater-installed rainwater tanks.
TasWater installed approximately thirty-five rainwater tanks between 2013 and 2017. This was promised by TasWater to be the solution to lead-contamination in the town’s reticulated supply.
In the forthcoming years it became known to the Tasmanian public that TasWater failed to apply the national guideline document for the installation and use of rainwater tanks. When questioned in 2020 about this failure, the CEO TasWater Mike Brewster said that TasWater did not have to follow the guidelines because they are ‘not a legal document’.
Reported in The Condemned Well for Tasmanian Times, the finding of the 2021 parliamentary inquiry into TasWater is as follows:
‘TasWater did not act in a timely manner in addressing the issue of providing safe drinking water to Pioneer residents.’
CEO Brewster retires on Monday 14 March. He will have earned approximately $4M in salary during his time as CEO of TasWater. Mike Brewster has been in charge of Pioneer’s drinking water since 2013.
On the public record, TasWater Chairman Stephen Gumley has expressed his full support for CEO Brewster in relation to his conduct at Pioneer since 2013.
CEO Brewster also enjoys the full confidence of Doug Chipman, the President of the Owners’ Representatives Group (ORG), representing TasWater’s 29 owner councils. Chipman is also the Mayor of Clarence City Council.
TasWater has promised to build a mini-treatment plant in Pioneer by May, 2023. CEO Brewster first made this promise two years and four months ago, during the government business enterprise scrutiny sessions in 2019.
Approaching one decade since the original and ongoing alert for lead (Pb) in 2012, works for safe drinking water are yet to begin at Pioneer.
This is Tim Slade’s twenty-seventh published article about Tasmania’s drinking water, focusing on Pioneer’s lead-contamination crisis, 2012 – 2022. For his articles and advocacy for Pioneer, and state-wide, Tim was a finalist in the 2021 Tasmanian Disability Awards – for Volunteer of the Year, and Excellence in Advocacy. Tim’s debut collection of poems is The Walnut Tree (2021, Bright South).
