+Undoctored
Media release from Southern DHB
Wednesday 28 July 2021, 10:41 AM
4 minutes to Read
Southern DHB Medical Officer of Health Dr Michael Butchard has recommended the Do Not Drink notice (DNDN) on the Waikouaiti, Karitane and Hawksbury Village water supply can be lifted.
This follows a comprehensive investigation by the Dunedin City Council into elevated lead levels that had been detected in the area, finding customer pipes, fittings and tapware leaching lead into the water were most likely the cause of the high lead results at the Waikouaiti Golf Course and the Karitane Bowls Club.
The most likely cause of the high lead result in the raw water reservoir is lead in sediment from a spike in water turbidity. Sediment is filtered out by the treatment process, so does not reach the treated water.
Dunedin City Council has revealed that one of its failed lead sample tests had in fact returned a level almost 40 times the acceptable limit.
Water tankers for Waikouaiti and Karitane after high lead levels found in the water.
Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
Previously, it had said the test sample taken on 8 December last year was only four times the allowable level. One of the intermittent spikes in lead levels, a sample taken on 8 December 2020, was also incorrectly stated in one earlier radio interview to be four times the acceptable level of 10 micrograms/L, the council said in a statement. In fact, at 0.39mg/L, the sample is almost 40 times the acceptable level of 0.01mg/L.