Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier this week, I spoke on the Clovelly Park contamination scandal in my electorate of Boothby. Ever since this news broke I have had residents calling me for help because they simply do not trust the state government to look after them, and with good reason. It has now emerged that a toxic lake of contaminated groundwater has spread from under Clovelly Park towards Mitchell Park. Twelve groundwater monitoring wells have just been bored in Mitchell Park to check for elevated levels of the cancer-causing chemical trichloroethylene, or TCE. What beggars belief is that the EPA has known about this groundwater contamination since 2009 but is only now starting to act. The contamination is from the same source as the toxic chemicals that are causing houses in Clovelly Park to be evacuated. What has the South Australian government been doing for the last five years? Why didn't Premier Jay Weatherill, the then South Australian environment minister, act? The state government has been playing Russian roulette with the health of my constituents. Air testing in one Housing Trust home returned a reading of 84 micrograms of TCE; the widely considered acceptable reading is just two. A public meeting on the contamination is being held this Sunday. I will be there. I strongly encourage residents and others with an interest to come along and call on the state government to be up-front about the scandal.

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