Toxic slag health fear for Lake Macquarie

[Catchin Jack]

TOXIC black slag spread across large areas of Lake Macquarie remains a serious public health threat that authorities have known about for years but failed to properly manage, critics say.

Lake Macquarie City Council widely distributed the slag, but it believes the state government has some responsibility because it approved the Pasminco operation that produced the slag.

The council said the state government rejected its proposal several years ago to include slag-affected land in the Pasminco remediation strategy.

The council insisted it was ‘‘working through a complex issue’’, but insiders said it was hampered by a lack of money.

Macquarie University researcher Anthony Morrison said Pasminco production figures suggested more than 1.5million tonnes of ‘‘fine granulated slag’’ was distributed in the community from 1961 to 2000.

The council, believing it to be safe, used it in public reserves, parks, ovals, the lake shore, paths, kerbs and roads. Many residents used slag to landscape backyards.

Mr Morrison, who has been researching slag in Lake Macquarie for a decade, said it remained a health and environmental risk.

‘‘It was a problem in 2003 and it’s still a problem now,’’ Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison released findings of a council-supported research project in 2003 that found lead contained in the slag could enter the human bloodstream, with the ‘‘hand-to-mouth behaviour’’ of children a particular concern.

This posed a significant risk of harm because elevated blood-lead levels in young children were known to cause intellectual impairment and behavioural problems.

Mr Morrison said slag may be ‘‘leaching into the environment when water is transported through it’’.

‘‘Whether that creates an environmental risk or not needs to be established,’’ he said.

A council spokeswoman said the council approved a policy for managing contaminated land in Lake Macquarie in 2010, which dealt with black slag.

Councillor Daniel Wallace said the slag was an occupational, health and safety problem, but mayor Greg Piper said ‘‘we have been addressing it’’.

Jim Sullivan, Boolaroo Action Group spokesman and a former council environmental officer, said it was a ‘‘big and embarrassing problem’’ that authorities had known about since 1995.

A council spokeswoman said the council was ‘‘unaware of any research or data on the human or environmental health impacts of Pasminco slag’’ until 2003. Since then, the council said it had supported slag research, produced education material, assessed risks and reduced exposure.

[arpie]

Gee, that is not good!! The longer they sit on the fence about it, the more will be leached into the system!

Not GOOD at all! All three should be held responsible for the cleanup, particularly Pasminco for creating the poison slag in the first place! The council should never have used it as 'fill' anywhere but a secure dumping site away from waterways & areas that can leach back into the system - the State Gov for approving the business without making it remediate its own mess!

Roberta

[squizzytaylor]

This has been looked into many times by myself and others (Via EPA and LMCC) and the reality is the contamination is of the "heavy" type (lead/zinc) and is subsurface of the lakes bottom, effectively you would have to dig it up for it to do harm. The lake is tested week to week by both the EPA and LMCC and has NEVER had a report (since Pasminco closed down) that has ever indicated any form of threat to water users, this includes fish contamination.

Many studies have been carried out and the conclusion has been reached on numerous occasions that to "remediate" the lake would in fact all but render the lake unusable and highly contaminated for many years due to the introduction of the pollution into the main body of water on a large scale.

It is generally considered unwise however to take any crabs or bottom dwellers from the north end of the lake, there is no real science to this but all parties I have spoken to over the years seem to be of this opinion.

Selenium levels on the other hand have been known to come from more than one power station on the lake and have been detected in a few spots but again is not a contamination that a) is a direct threat to lake users and can be easily remediated.

There are several reports available online regarding this and it has been about 5 years since I researched any of it but all authorities I contacted were incredibly helpful and gave information readily.

Cheers

Geoff

Edited February 8, 2012 by squizzytaylor