By Bronwen Beechey
ADELAIDE — South Australia ("the driest state in the driest country") relies on the Murray River and rainfall in the Adelaide Hills catchment for its water supply. These sources are heavily polluted from sewerage, agricultural chemicals, animals and rubbish dumping.
Most of the state's water supply has to be filtered and treated with large doses of chlorine. This is what gives it the murky colour and swimming-pool taste and aroma, makes Adelaide's water a national joke and gives bottled water suppliers a high rate of profit.
Recent events suggest that Adelaide residents may be getting more than just an unpleasant taste in their water.
On August 4, state environment minister Dorothy Kotz read a statement in parliament assuring South Australians that their water supply was safe from the contamination that has plagued Sydney.
It has since been revealed that as Kotz was reading the statement, Adelaide's Hope Valley reservoir had been closed for almost a week after the discovery of the giardia parasite — the same bug that caused chaos in Sydney.
The Olsen Liberal government was embarrassed further after it became known that at least two government ministers were aware of the closure at the time. Government enterprises minister Dr Michael Armitage admitted that he was told of the closure on July 30, six days after the reservoir was taken out of operation, and received a written briefing on August 4. So too did human resources minister Dean Brown.
Armitage claimed that the parasite had not entered mains water and there had been no risk to public health. When it was pointed out that residents near Sixth Creek in the Mount Lofty Ranges, the suspected source of the giardia outbreak, used the creek water for drinking and other purposes, Armitage replied that Sixth Creek residents were not registered SA Water users and, therefore, the state government was not responsible for warning them.
Brown claimed to have advised Olsen of the contamination on August 4; Olsen claimed that he had not been told until after the Advertiser report revealed the closure. Olsen ordered a review of "communication procedures" within the government.
On September 16, the Advertiser reported that on July 22, 13 days before her statement in parliament, Kotz received an Environmental Protection Authority briefing paper on several instances in the past year of contamination by atrazine, a powerful herbicide, in the Barossa reservoir. Kotz admitted that she had not read the briefing paper until at least two weeks after receiving it.
Another reservoir at Millbrook, north-east of Adelaide, also tested positive for atrazine in January and for another herbicide, simazine, early last month. Kotz received a briefing on this incident on September 11.
The government response to these reports was to announce the convening of a State Water Monitoring Coordinating Committee made up of officials from several departments.
The Conservation Council of SA has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the management of the state's water resources. Michelle Grady, the CCSA's executive officer, told Green Left Weekly: "The public need to know why [the contamination occurred], and how many other instances of contamination have not been reported ... Secondly, there is a broader public health issue in that chemicals which may pose a health risk are being released into our water, often with insufficient research as to their possible effects."
On September 18, SA Water revealed that Adelaide's reservoirs have been contaminated 38 times in the last three years by pesticides, animal waste and other pollutants. According to SA water, all were "low-level" contaminations and not deemed a health risk requiring the public to be notified.
Grady dismissed the argument that publicity about water contamination can cause panic: "You can't treat the public like children. If you have a potential health risk, the public have the right to know."
"The World Health Organisation has classed atrazine as a possible carcinogen after tests on animals found that it caused cancer of the breast and reproductive organs and had potentially severe effects on the reproductive system. WHO recommends that only two parts per billion be allowed in the water supply. The US allows three ppb, while Europe only allows 0.1 ppb of any pesticide.
"In Sweden, atrazine is banned. Australia allows 20 ppb — 10 times higher than the US and 200 times higher than Europe", Grady said.
Organochlorines like atrazine remain in the water for up to two years. In the Barossa Valley, atrazine is used in pellet form to control weeds on pine plantations. The pellets can be washed into waterways by rain.
While the EPA has advised landowners in the Barossa Valley, the state's main wine-growing area, not to use surface water on their crops, Grady points out that the herbicide is probably in the ground water as well. She says that this demonstrates the correctness of the Conservation Council's demand that pine plantations should not be allowed in agricultural areas.