Steve Taylor: Water Services Authority Head of Operations on the slightly higher levels of arsenic in the Waikato river

The Water Services Authority says they are expecting further results around arsenic levels in the Waikato River this morning.  

An elevated level of arsenic has been detected in the river which supplies drinking water to Hamilton and parts of Auckland.  

It says there's no risk to public health and the water is safe to drink.  

Authority Head of Operations Steve Taylor told Ryan Bridge that to impact health, people would need to drink at levels above the accepted value for 40 to 50 years.  

But he says this is a marginal increase over acceptable value, which they expect to see reduced over coming days. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Water Services Authority has been notified of increase levels
of arsenic in the Waikato River, which feeds into the
Auckland and Hamilton water supply. The agency says there is
no health risk in drinking the water, but the maximum
acceptable value for arsenic is zero point zero one milligrams elater,
an incredibly low amount apparently, but they have seen levels

(00:21):
between zero points zero one one milligram and zero point
zero one five milligrams, which is quote marginally above the
acceptable value for drinking water. Steve Taylor is the head
of operations at Water Services Authority, needs with us this morning. Steve,
good morning, welcome to the show. Have you had any
new results in overnight since since you last spoke?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
No, I haven't. There's been a number of samples that
were taken, yes, just to can fill what those levels
are in fact that there's been any decrease as a
result of the actions that water Care has taken over
the last few hours. That are expecting those results this morning?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
What time this morning?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, I have to check of the laboratory, but I
understand they've been prioritized with haste, so we'd expect setos
sons are available.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
How can you say that it's safe to drink even
though it's above the acceptable value for drinking?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, acceptable value for a drinking water is designed for
long term exposure. So in other words, that someone was
drinking amount of water over forty fifty years, and we
might expect to see some health effects. That's up here
after forty or fifty years. So prolonged extensive drinking at

(01:37):
levels above and makes them acceptable value. What we've got
here is a marginal increase above acceptable value that would
expect to see reduced overcoming days.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
When did you so, how long is it? When did
you first find out about the result.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So we found out about these results yesterday yesterday morning.
Bear in mind that the Whitecatta River naturally has underlying
levels of arsenic inner and the treatment plants for both
Auckland City and Hamilton City do that arsenic. So they
removed the arsenic before it's put into the drinking water.

(02:17):
That's an important part of their treatment. And we know
from what these activities. Immediately after receiving these notifications, they
are changing their treatment process to extally ensure the increased
levels of the arsenic areagely removed from the water.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
So did both you as a regulator and water Care
both only found out about this yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yes, that's great, but because Hamilton.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
City Council said that they testing during a stage of
the treatment process on the nineteenth and twentieth of November
recorded results that were elevated.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, so we're aware that results within the river itself,
so this is before the point of treatment and vary.
So we were notified. I'm just not data today Thursday,
on Thursday morning at the levels within the point network

(03:14):
in Hamilton or above the acceptable value and at that
point that's when we've requested ongoing action.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
You've so you found out actually a week ago that
there were elevated levels of arsenic in the river and.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
You are saying that we were notified on the twenty seventh,
so that's the last night.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Sorry, So why is it so Hamilton City Council noted
that they had elevated levels on the nineteenth and twentieth
of November.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
That's a week ago, right, So why weren't you told?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
I can't comment on that. We'd expect to be notified
with any increase and levels above the math and there's
a requirement that we are notified of those results.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Okay, So if you weren't, what do you do about it?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
And so I'll be flying up with Hamilton to check
what the results were the tilling of those results. Again,
if it's a spike in the source water, we should
have been notified about that. It's possible that that was
an issue that's been managed through as part of their
treatment process. But again it's important that we do receive
notice of these results so that we can ensure that

(04:34):
supplies are actually taking the appropriate action.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
When you say how when you say water Care is
changing or rejigging the way that it processes the water,
what exactly does that mean and why aren't we doing
that already?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah? So what it Care has got the ability as
part of its natural treatment of water to turn it
on different treatment plants as part of its day to
day operations, So it has the ability it can reduce
the intake from its white cat A treatment and increase
the amount of that's being supplied from its dams and

(05:09):
other sources. So it's switched out process on And what
it means is the water that is coming through the
way Kato treatment plan has slowed down, which means the
ability for those folds to remove the arts increase of
so the slow the water moves through those filters, the
more efficient the process is.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
All right, Steve, you can guarantee as one hundred percent
there will be no ill health effects from this, nothing
for pregnant women, nothing for the elderly, nothing like that.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
So we're confident that these levels are safe to drink,
but would expect both Hamilton and water Care to be
acting proactively just to reduce any risk.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Steve, thanks for your time this morning. Steve Taylor, head
of operations at the Water Services Authority.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
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