What is the risk to residents?

For site contamination to become an issue, there needs to be a source (contaminated groundwater), a pathway (extracting that water from a bore), and a receptor (a person coming into contact with that water).

Using contaminated groundwater for drinking, showering, washing, filling swimming pools, watering lawns or irrigating produce over a long period of time is considered a health risk in the proposed GPA.

Prohibiting groundwater use removes the exposure pathway and protects public health. It prevents the spread of the contamination by preventing the use of existing bores, and also prevents the installation of new bores into the Quaternary aquifers in the future.