Big questions to answer after lead found in water
YOUR frontpage article (ODT, 4.2.21) quotes Mayor Hawkins as reassuring the public, in reference to Waikouaiti drinking water tests, that ‘‘an independent drinking water assessor found no need to notify the wider community of the elevated results’’.
You further report that the tests had been carried out by Eurofins to assess pipe correction and ‘‘were not expected to flag concerns about drinking water’’.
Does this mean that the Dunedin City Council decision not to notify the public of the lead in the drinking water was based on tests that, with the mayor’s knowledge, ‘‘were not expected to flag concerns about drinking water’’ yet can still be referenced by him as ‘‘independent drinking water tests’’ in an attempt to explain this debacle?
As a ratepayer, I sincerely hope that decisions on notification of potential matters of life and death lie firmly with a qualified DCC staff member, who is accountable, not a subcontractor, who is not.
Brendan Murphy
Fairfield