NORTHERN Lake Macquarie residents are outraged a second attempt to eradicate contaminated soil left in their suburbs by Pasminco will take at least another two years.
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About 250 people who attended a public forum hosted by Boolaroo Action Group last Wednesday heard a state government-established thinktank had been given two years to find a solution.
"That's too long," acting action group spokesman Jim Sullivan said.
"We need something done now - this has affected too many people's health and safety."
NSW Environment Protection Authority Hunter Region manager Adam Gilligan, who is part of the thinktank, said the two-year timeframe was an estimate.
"We will review [the thinktank's] progress at that time," Mr Gilligan said.
"If those groups need longer, if there are still issues that need to be resolved, we will need to extend that timeframe."
The thinktank consists of the Lead Expert Working Group and the Lake Macquarie Lead Community Reference Group.
The Lead Expert Working Group, with representatives from the NSW Environment Protection Authority, NSW Health, NSW Department of Planning, Lake Macquarie council, and Pasminco administrative company Ferrier Hodgson, implemented a lead abatement strategy in 2010.
However, a joint Macquarie University-Newcastle Herald study conducted in late 2014 found the strategy had failed.
Evidence showed dangerously high levels of lead and black slag still blanketed the city after Boolaroo's Pasminco Smelter closed in 2003.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper has been appointed the chairman of the Lake Macquarie Lead Community Reference Group while applications for the eight community representatives are open until March 13.
The group's first meeting is expected to be held late March.