HONESTY is always the best policy.
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IT’S a saying that rings true for all relationships – including the relationship between a council and its ratepayers.
Tamworth Regional Council is probably regretting its decision to not immediately inform Kootingal and Moonbi residents it had discovered elevated levels of uranium in one of the village’s drinking water bores.
At a community meeting on Thursday, residents questioned council’s timeline and thought process.
Council first discovered the bore was showing levels of uranium above the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, on July 15.
A second confirmation test was conducted on August 20, and following another positive result the two villages were discreetly switched over to the Tamworth town water supply, on August 23.
Residents weren't informed until September 7.
TRC’s water director Bruce Logan said the plan was to wait until council had answers to the “obvious questions” about the health risks from the Department of Heath before breaking the news to residents.
Mr Logan admitted what he “felt was going to be the best approach” fell through when The Leader got onto the story, which forced council to do a night-time letter drop to locals before the story broke on the front page of the paper.
If The Leader hadn’t forced council’s hand, how long would it have sat on the information?
The Department of Health released a report saying there was a “negligible risk” of adverse health effects on October 21 – close to 14 weeks after the first reading.
To add fuel to the fire, it was revealed council staff had been reading the results of the uranium testing wrong for the two years it had been in place.
To be fair, council was quick to tell Bendemeer residents when it realised staff had also misinterpreted the uranium test results for the town’s emergency back-up bore, since it was commissioned in 2015.
Perhaps it learnt its lesson?
Or perhaps the cat was already out of the bag?
It’s easy to understand council’s argument – no one likes having a problem without a solution or answers.
But what people like even less, is being led to believe there is no problem to begin with.