Some residents in an Adelaide southern suburb are being told to relocate after a carcinogen was detected in air, soil and groundwater.
Clovelly Park residents have known of toxic contamination in the area for years but thought they were safe in their houses.
But now the South Australian Government has told residents from about 30 properties that they should move out and Environment Minister Ian Hunter is not ruling out the demolition of some properties.
“It may well be that those homes will be demolished and new ones will be built with new mechanisms with impermeable membranes [and] concrete slabs, but that’s for down the track,” he said.
The residents of three streets have been told they will be relocated over the next few months because of concerns about the presence of the industrial solvent trichloroethylene in indoor air samples.
Authorities maintain there is no immediate health risk and say shifting the residents is “out of an abundance of caution”.
Prolonged and high exposure to the solvent is thought to cause cancer.
Of the affected properties, 23 are Housing Trust properties and two are former Trust properties.
Swift action once issue raised in Parliament
The Government received a report on the issue in May, Cabinet discussed it last Monday and the Government says it has been preparing an “action plan”.
But the matter accelerated when it was raised in State Parliament.
Opposition Leader Steven Marshall says the Government has been slow to respond to the risk.
“If people are in danger the Government has got an obligation to let people know as quickly as possible,” he said.
“Now that protocol has not been followed in this instance.”
Mr Hunter has defended the Government’s response.
“[It is] long-term exposure we’re worried about, a couple of weeks will make absolutely no difference is our advice,” he said.
“It is important to understand that we’re talking about a chemical exposure which takes years, if not decades, to have an impact so the advice from Health [Department] was that it’s very unlikely that any residents have been exposed to levels of trichloroethylene which would have a negative impact on their health and that we should take our time to talk to them and give them this advice.”
Car industry degreaser to blame
Trichloroethylene is a degreaser and the contamination in the southern suburbs stems from the area’s long association with the automotive industry.
Peter Dolan of the Environment Protection Authority says action is being taken to make the area safe.
“The issue for us is working through how we can make those houses habitable again through remediation processes,” he said.
Residents are unimpressed with the response by authorities.
“That would be normal for the Government. They don’t tell you nothing until the last second,” one resident said.
There’s talks of relocation [but] my mum is disabled and I don’t have a car so relocating would be quite hard,” said another.