The people of Boolaroo have been disrespected for decades.
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Successive governments and politicians at all levels have failed to adequately deal with their plight and the pollution legacy that the state-sanctioned Pasminco lead and zinc smelter left behind.
In the latest chapter of this saga, Lake Macquarie City Council is attempting to install a "standard remedial action plan" for residential properties surrounding the former smelter.
The council says this approach aims to reduce the cost for residents doing "routine development activities".
It stated that the plan would "make it easier and quicker for residents" in the area to submit development applications.
The plan removes the need for residents to test their land for lead contamination before starting work.
The council said this had the potential to save affected residents up to $15,000.
Boolaroo Action Group spokesman Jim Sullivan, though, has said that the changes would make residents "officially responsible for pollution they had nothing to do with".
Despite any savings, residents doing developments in the area will still be stuck with a big bill to decontaminate their land. This cost has been estimated at up to $50,000.
The council's remediation plan applies to the controversial lead contamination grid, which was drawn up in 1995.
A Macquarie University study in 2014 reflected what some had been saying for years - that the grid was flawed. It mainly included the suburbs of Boolaroo, Argenton and Speers Point.
This is despite properties in Warners Bay, Macquarie Hills, Booragul, Teralba, Edgeworth, Cardiff and Glendale having potential lead contamination.
Interestingly, the council's remediation plan also applies to residential properties in Lake Macquarie that have been "impacted by the use of black slag as fill material".
The council plan states that black slag - a Pasminco pollutant - could "potentially be identified in any residential property within the Lake Macquarie City Council area".
It will be interesting to know how properties outside the grid will be identified as having black slag.
If the remediation plan is approved, it will be worth keeping an eye on how many residents outside the grid end up with big remediation bills to remove black slag.
The focus should not only be properties within the grid. That would be unjust.
But then, justice for the people has never been high on the agenda of decision makers when it comes to Pasminco pollution.
If it had been, millions of dollars would have been poured into north Lake Macquarie to remove as much lead as possible from the worst-affected areas.
Instead, the people have been left to wear the cost. The council is trying to lock in its plan, but a feeling of injustice in Boolaroo remains and the matter is yet to be resolved.
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