The ABC reports – Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) lead contamination in water pipes supplying site – my Dec 2016 blog “Australian Government financial disasters” was discussing this issue early this month. How slow it is for truth to emerge.
The WA Building Commission has reported on the lead contamination issue with an 83 page pdf – Final report – Perth Children’s Hospital audit. Analytical results are presented in a 3 page pdf – Test results – Perth Children’s Hospital lead level patterns. The crux of the Commission findings are on page 27 of the audit section in their must read 6.4.1 Findings. High metal contents were found in the “dead leg”, a 52m dead end length of pipe open to the QEII ring main see page – see page 34 for table of analyses. The location of the “dead leg” is shown on the page 22 map – note proximity to PCH offtakes. The Commission also suspects new brass fittings in PCH as another source of lead contamination.
Page 2 of the test results shows 4 charts labelled North-South-East-West Blocks of presumably the PCH. The South Block chart in lower left shows an increasing trend of lead content. I do not recall that being addressed.
How long has lead been an alloy component of brass?
Beachgirl
I thought this passage from page 27 was damming of efforts to date.
“The PCH and QEII test results available to the Building Commission do not contain coherent time, location and sequence information to allow the Building Commission to determine the source or sources of excess lead.”
Mike Nahan is saying the previous Govt was not told about the dead leg.
“The first time I heard about the existence of a dead leg or the high levels of lead detected in the dead leg in September was when I read the report on Monday,” Dr Nahan said.
www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-26/parliamentary-inquiry-into-perth-childrens-hospital-lead-problem/8472588?WT.ac=statenews_wa
There might be a few large instos around Oz looking at their water supply setup. The QEII ring main outside the administration of the water utility might not be unique.
@ Toorightmate, I am not a plumber, but maybe lead solder was used to fit the brass fittings by Chinese 457 Visa plumbers. 😉
Might be the brass fittings themselves which are allowed to be 4.5% lead.
www.lead.org.au/q%26a/2002/lead-solder-as-a-source-of-lead-in-drinking-water.html