Significant lead contamination has been found in a Western Australian town located near an abandoned mine processing plant.
Personnel from WA’s Department of Lands have found that just under 20 percent of properties in Northampton, in the state’s Mid West, contain some level of lead contamination. The findings came after the state government ordered a probe into the discovery of lead tailings on properties in the town in 2011.
According to The West Australian, townspeople and local builders had recycled lead tailings from stockpiles at the former Northampton State Battery operation for the best part of 30 years. The lead was used in building construction throughout the town in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1979, 181 children from the town were tested for lead poisoning after health concerns were first raised by local townspeople. Nine of the children tested had more than double the acceptable level of lead in their blood and four children had three times the safe level.
Speaking to the ABC yesterday, Chuck Ellis from the Lands Department said a number of residents from the town had been recently tested for lead poisoning.
“To date, none of those tests have produced a results that was above a level that required immediate action,” Mr Ellis said.
“There have been no results like that where someone was at some critical or crisis level.”
Mr Ellis said the Lands Department would soon begin a program to remove or seal any lead tailings deemed to be harmful to health and that residents must not try to remove the material themselves.
“Given the risk associated with removing lead tailings, as well as the current legal restrictions on where tailings can be disposed of, it’s very important if people do have lead tailings on their property, don’t remove them themselves,” he said.
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