25 May 2021

East Otago lead scare: Council agrees to terms of reference for review

4:01 pm on 25 May 2021

Dunedin City Council has agreed to the terms of reference for a review into its handling of the East Otago lead scare.

Dunedin City Council

An independent reviewer is expected to be appointed in the coming months. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon

The settlements of Waikouaiti, Karitane and Hawksbury Village are still taking drinking water from tankers after spikes in lead levels were found intermittently in the reticulated supply from July last year.

An independent reviewer will be appointed by the council once the water supply is returned.

That was expected to happen in the coming months with a tentative date of the end of June.

The council bought specialist machinery which would let it test for lead in the water every 20 minutes, and replaced old pipes to assist in the restoration of the area's supply.

A 'do not drink' notice was put into effect on 2 February as the council revealed spikes in the lead levels of the area's drinking supply had been detected since 31 July last year.

The highest level detected was almost 40 times the acceptable limit.

The council's review would assess its handling of the scare from the beginning - when the decision was made to test the water for asset management purposes - to the end, and would include the response aspects as well as the restoration of supply.

The outcome of the review would be publicly reported back to the council once it was completed.

An earlier review ordered by the Director-General of Health found the health response was hindered because health authorities were not alerted to the extent of the issue for many months.

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