The Waikato District Health Board is reconfirming the water in Thames is safe to drink.
Test were undertaken at the source (before water gets into the reticulation system) and at the end of the line from people's taps.
The results showed there was no antimony, arsenic or lead in the drinking water samples taken from four different addresses in Fergusson Drive, Moanataiari Street and Kuranui Street.
No antimony, arsenic or lead was detected in drinking water samples taken from the Kopu-Thames treatment plant.
The detection limits for Antimony and Arsenic are 0.001 g/m3 and for lead 0.0005 g/m3.
The tests have been undertaken following the detection of high levels of arsenic on212 properties in the Thames area.
These properties each contained up to 235 times the safe limit of arsenic.
Arsenic deposits are believed to have come from mine tailings used as landfill for the Moanataiari subdivision more than 100 years ago.
The affected suburb, on the northern edge of Thames, includes a childcare centre and primary school where last night the Thames-Coromandel District Council sent contractors to remove a mound of dirt.
Former environment Minister Nick Smith says Moanataiari is built on land reclaimed from the Firth of Thames.
The area was filled with mine tailings, mine waste, and clean fill subdivided in the 1960s and houses built in the 1970s.
'Undertaking a subdivision in this way would be unacceptable today.”
1 comment
At least we have the RMA
Posted on 16-04-2012 06:25 | By IanM
The water is safe because it is piped into the subdivision from elsewhere. The land is not safe because of how it was developed, although people have lived on it for 40 years. Around Tauranga, we need to beware subdivisions on old orchards for similar reasons - the land could be contaminated because of prior use. These examples are why we have the RMA and Council-run resource consent processes - widely derided by developers, and increasingly watered down by the current government.
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