The State Government certainly hasn’t covered itself in glory over its approach to contamination in Adelaide’s suburbs. However, the missing focus of public pressure is the companies who are responsible for the waste that has made people’s homes uninhabitable.

The recently departed head of SA’s Environmental Protection Authority, Campbell Gemmell, didn’t spare the Government in comments to InDaily this week, noting that the environment wasn’t prioritised and suggesting strongly that his political masters lacked the will to deal quickly with contaminated sites.

However, he also had this to say about the appalling behaviour of some businesses in this state – some of whom rode out of town long ago, leaving behind a poisonous legacy in the groundwater and soils of Adelaide suburbs:

“It does appear that, unlike at least some users elsewhere, it was extremely common for SA industries to pour waste solvents indiscriminately into the sewer or into pits on or adjacent to the site, store inadequately and generally take insufficient interest in proper disposal of dangerous materials, until relatively recently.”

This is scandalous. Why hasn’t the State Government been calling loudly for these industrial cowboys to face up to their obligations?

Maybe there is quiet work going on behind the scenes. Marion Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis, who was privy to a briefing involving the EPA yesterday, told ABC radio this morning that she believed several companies were being pursued by the EPA in relation to the Clovelly Park contamination, including one long departed from the site.

We’re certainly not suggesting any of the companies in the area behaved in the cavalier way described by Gemmell – but it would be good to know who did and bring them to account for any legacy of their poor practices.

But the community should be asking why businesses haven’t been asked to remediate the site until now and, if they can’t be identified, why the Government hasn’t taken action.

There are complications, of course. In relation to the contamination at Clovelly Park and Mitchell Park, there are a number of possible sources.

The EPA has identified four sources and there may be other companies, present or past, that could be implicated in the contamination, given that the key chemical of concern – trichlorethene (TCE) – has found its way into the groundwater over many years.

This confusion might go some way to explain why there hasn’t been any attempt at remediation, despite a contamination problem being identified nearly five years ago. But only some way.

Gemmell’s other comments to us this week suggest that effective remediation treatments are available and well-established. The question becomes one of cost and gumption.

In a January 2009 brief on contamination in Clovelly Park, the EPA said that Mitsubishi had found TCE and other chemicals in both the groundwater and air voids in bores that it drilled on the perimeter of its site.

Back then, it decided to test soil samples and air inside nearby houses.

Fast forward to 2014, and the EPA has found that TCE vapour levels in some homes are above the guideline levels established by the World Health Organisation.

As a result, a stack of public housing tenants will have to leave their homes, as well as a couple of private owners. The problem appears to be spreading.

Why wasn’t remediation attempted before now? Why did we just wait, and watch and see?

InDaily asked the EPA why remediation hasn’t been attempted.

Its answers reveal a malaise.

“Further investigations to determine the nature and extent of contamination in the groundwater and the soil vapour in the area is still ongoing,” a spokesperson said.

“This is needed before options for remediation can be considered.

“Further investigations will be undertaken in the wider area of Clovelly Park and Mitchell Park over the upcoming months.”

Why are we still faffing around? Is the Government hoping to find a definitive source of the toxic chemicals so the taxpayer doesn’t have to pay for remediation itself?

Again, Gemmell has shed some light.

He told us that while owners of contaminated sites can “in theory” be made to carry the burden of fixing the problem, difficulties emerged from “orphan” or contested sites, where the goodwill of the former owner or other parties need to be relied upon.

It seems our laws may lack teeth.

And then there was the lack of will within Government to take firm action.

“The problem can be addressed as it has largely been in Germany, the UK, US etc but it has to be seen as a priority by governments for this to happen,” he said.

“And where there are many (usually small) sites in the higher risk profile categories, there may not be sufficient funds or political support available to – quickly – tackle the problem. This issue was repeatedly discussed with government during my time in SA.”

And so we continue to wait, and monitor, and consider.

This has been going on five years.

How many more years will pass before either industry is called to account, or the Government wakes from its slumber and takes definitive action to remediate our contaminated suburbs?

A worrying footnote: Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade told InDaily he was briefed by the EPA yesterday and he was told that the Housing Trust had left several properties vacant for years because of health concerns in Clovelly Park.

He also learned that a community housing project in the area had undertaken remediation works on its properties.

“Considering that a non-government organisation went ahead and took action to remediate, why didn’t the Housing Trust do the same?”

It’s a fair question.

READ MORE: What’s contaminating Clovelly Park?