Faulty flow switch and ignored alarm contribute to fluoride overdose

A government report into an incident in which hundreds of South-East Queensland households received an overdose of fluoride in their drinking water has determined that it was caused by a mix of mechanical and human error.

The error occurred on 29 April this year, but the incident began days before with the disabling of an erratic flow switch and a fluoride hi-alarm. On 27 April, the water treatment plant at North Pine was shut down but the fluoride dosing plant was not turned off. Two days later a fluoride analyser recorded an off-the-scale reading and an alarm was triggered, but staff did not respond, assuming it to be a false alarm because the treatment plant was shut down.

The result was that about 400 households in the Brisbane suburb of Joyner were delivered drinking water containing around 13 times the maximum recommended dosage of fluoride.

Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson said a report into the incident by Associate Professor Mark Pascoe, of the public research body The International Water Centre, found that the responsible authority, SEQwater, had failed in its management role.

"SEQwater has breached the Water Supply and Reliability Act; they breached the Water Supply Safety Act," Robertson said on Friday.

"I've expressed in very strong terms I find this unacceptable. My expectation is the board will take appropriate action against those who have been found to be responsible. Should there be a repeat of this incident I will be moving very swiftly to take decisive action at the board level, and possibly senior management level."

Robertson said he was considering amending the law to give the government powers to fine organisations that are similarly derelict in their duties.

He also said he would write to the affected residents to apologise.

"I can only say how unacceptable I find this incident to be and I do apologise to the people who were concerned and possibly impacted by this episode, and assure them we will be doing whatever we can to ensure that this is not repeated," Robertson said.

Source: AAP NewsWire