1676. Hon Alison Xamon to the Minister for Education and Training:
I refer to the Gooseberry Hill Primary School entry on the Contaminated Sites Database, which states that the school is irrigated by waters pumped from the Ledger Road Dam and will continue to be, and I ask:
(a) will the Minister please explain the discrepancy between this information and the response provided to my question on notice No. 1326, answered on 21 August 2018; and
(b) if the school does not use water from the Ledger Road Dam for irrigation, please advise:
(i) the date scheme water began to be used for irrigation at the school;
(ii) who connected the school’s irrigation system to scheme water; and
(iii) the total cost of this work?
Hon Sue Ellery replied:
(a)–(b)
(i) The Department of Water and Environment Regulation has used the information contained within the Human Health Risk Assessment and the Independent Audit to list Gooseberry Hill Primary School in the Contaminated Sites Database.
The source of the information that was relied upon by the external consultants to incorrectly identify the Ledger Road Dam as the source of the school’s irrigation water is unknown at this point in time, but the Department of Education has confirmed with the school that it has relied solely on scheme water for at least seven years to irrigate the school grounds. This is consistent with the advice provided to the Department of Water and Environment Regulation in July, and included in the response it drafted to Question on Notice 1326.
The Department of Education will follow up this issue with the consultants who undertook the Human Health Risk Assessment and the Independent Audit, and request the reports are updated and resubmitted.
(b) (ii) Unknown.
(iii) Unknown.