TAMWORTH Regional Council (TRC) has been advised to decommission the troubled bore five, which previously supplied Moonbi-Kootingal.
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I would not countenance they be used again.
- Population health physician Dr David Durrheim
Population health physician with Hunter New England Health (HNEH), Dr David Durrheim, has been reviewing data supplied by TRC and has recommended the bore at the centre of the recent uranium finding should be switched off for good.
“The bores where there has been detects, I would not countenance they be used again,” Dr Durrheim told The Leader.
“The bores where there has been no-detect may be considered for use again, but there will be a strict set of tests to follow.”
Dr Durrheim said bore five at Moonbi-Kootingal has “had a long string” of uranium detects and HNEH has recommended TRC decommission the bore.
HNEH is now bringing together an ‘expert panel’ to advise the NSW chief health officer on what, if any, health effects may arise from the uranium contamination.
“There will be experts in clinical toxiciology, renal disease, cancer epidemiology and public health medicine,” he said.
“They’re brought together, largely, to review all of the data and scientific evidence, and determine whether low-level exceedances may have any health effects.”
Routine testing at the Moonbi-Kootingal groundwater supply in July returned a reading of 32 micrograms per litre, nearly double the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines value of 17 micrograms.
The population health physician said the guideline figure has a “100-fold safety factor” and it was “uncertain from published literature” the potential health effects for low-level exceedances.
Dr Durrheim said the expert panel would not visit the affected areas and recommended anyone needing additional support should contact their GPs.
It could be difficult for the health department’s expert panel to provide a ruling on the extent of exposure from the bore which was commissioned sometime around 1983 or 1984.
TRC have only been testing for uranium in the water supply since 2014, but Dr Durrheim said the six-monthly data from the last two years, which was provided by council showed “very little fluctuation” and was “pretty stable”.