Title : Uranium among contaminants sparking proposed bore water ban
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Uranium among contaminants sparking proposed bore water ban
About 1,500 Adelaide residents and businesses have been told not to use groundwater because of contamination from uranium and degreasing chemicals.
Key points:
- A groundwater ban is proposed for most of the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton
- The EPA says there are potential health effects from chemicals in the underground water
- Uranium has also been detected in the ground from a laboratory
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is proposing a permanent groundwater ban for the area, which includes most of Thebarton and a small part of Mile End, just west of Adelaide's CBD.
The authority has also found contamination from degreasing chemicals tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) that were used in the area.
Similar groundwater bans are in place in Adelaide suburbs including Edwardstown, Clovelly Park, Allenby Gardens and Glenelg East.
Most are associated with factories or dry cleaners.
Residents in groundwater ban areas are not allowed to use bores for gardening, growing vegetables or cleaning paved surfaces.
The EPA said the Thebarton contamination came from the former Amdel laboratory on West Thebarton Road where uranium mineral samples were tested from the 1950s until 2008.
Waste from testing was disposed of in a nearby pughole — a hole originally dug for clay mining for bricks — in the 1950s.
The waste was removed in the 1980s and 1990s, and the pit was filled in and paved over.
Despite this, an EPA report released yesterday stated that testing found "elevated uranium and lead within the pughole and within onsite soils".
"An environmental risk assessment for the site indicates that the risk is low for site occupants for an ongoing industrial/commercial land use," it said.
"Groundwater sampling results indicated that the metals in the groundwater (uranium, lead and arsenic) remain at levels above guideline values for drinking water."
Bore water in the area is considered too salty to drink.
Health concerns from groundwater
EPA site contamination manager Andrew Pruszinski said long-term exposure to groundwater in the area could have health impacts.
"We don't know whether there will or won't be effects, but we're doing this as a precautionary measure to make sure people are not exposed to the chemicals either now or into the future," he said.
He said the PCE and TCE was of more concern than the radiation levels from the uranium, which was "very, very low" even on the Amdel site.
EPA regulation director Peter Dolan said people would get more radiation from a flight from Adelaide to Sydney than at the Amdel site.
"On most of the property, the radiation levels are not distinguishable from the normal background levels you'd find in the rest of Adelaide," he said.
Mr Dolan said the nearby West End brewery was not impacted because the water it used for beer came from much farther down than the contaminated groundwater.
The contamination also does not stretch to the River Torrens.
SA's long history of uranium mining
Radium and uranium were first discovered at Radium Hill — in South Australia's north-east — in 1906.
The Radium Hill site operated from 1954 until 1961.
Former Labor Hindmarsh MP John Scott raised concerns about radiation from the Amdel laboratory as early as 1981.
"In Thebarton we have an establishment in a residential area pumping out radon gas and radioactive dust, and pumping radioactive tailings into the ground, contaminating the land, the water and the people," he told Parliament.
"I have spent some time in the Thebarton Amdel location going from door-to-door to speak with my constituents.
"I have been informed by people in the immediate vicinity about two deaths from cancer or leukaemia, and in the past few months the death of a child, three cases of possible skin cancer, two serious cases of chest and breathing complaints, nine complaints of constant eye irritations, and numerous complaints of sore throats."
Amdel was a joint state and federal government statutory authority.
It was privatised in 1987 and stopped operations in 2008.
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