State Government claims that residents living on contaminated land in Clovelly Park have been “involved throughout the process” have been rejected by a long-term resident.

“I have no idea where I stand or what to do; I am just shocked at what’s going on,” Justin Pearce told InDaily today.

Pearce has owned and lived in his home in Ash Court for more than a decade, and says he was blindsided by new yesterday that he would have to move out of his home because of toxic chemical contamination.

His is one of 25 homes – many of which are owned by the Housing Trust – that will need to be vacated because of contamination from the industrial solvent trichloroethylene.

READ MORE: What’s contaminating Clovelly Park?

The carcinogenic chemical has moved from groundwater into soils, and has also been found to be airborne in 11 of the homes.

The levels are now just above the World Health Organisation guidelines for residential areas – a fact known to the State Government since May this year.

“I don’t know where to go or what to do,” Pearce said.

“The last communication we had was in September last year when we were told the investigations into soil contamination were still ongoing.”

Another resident told Channel Nine news last night: ” Well, you literally just told me two minutes ago, so it’s pretty shocking. Probably going to get relocated, don’t know where; don’t have the actual means to … be relocated just because I don’t have a car or anything like that.”

Revelations in parliament yesterday that residents of 25 homes would have to be relocated from the contaminated area have sent the State Government into damage control.

The central question is why the Government waited until this week to tell residents that they would have to move, given that Environment Minister Ian Hunter received a report about elevated contamination levels in May.

The Government argues it was following an orderly process – the Opposition says the Government had moved too slowly and called for Hunter to be sacked.

Details of the latest contamination problems emerged in Parliament yesterday after details were leaked to the Opposition.

Premier Jay Weatherill claimed the Government was “developing a communications strategy” but later Hunter said the process of sharing information with residents had been in hand for months.

“We’ve had six or seven letters go out to the community members, we’ve had door knockings from teams from the EPA and Housing Trust and we’ve had communications from Monroes, the company involved,” he said. “There is a regular trail of communication to the affected residents.”

Hunter spent most of this morning in multiple radio interviews dealing with the unfolding public health crisis and personally visited houses last night to contain concerns.

His assurances that there was no immediate health risk and residents were in the loop appear to have been contradicted by a succession of residents and health experts.

Justin Pearce said he was surprised last night when his normally quiet home was suddenly the centre of attention.

“Last night there was the director of the Environment Protection Authority, the Environment Minister, Channel Seven, Nine, and reporters from the newspaper.

“That was the first new thing I’d heard since September.”

Hunter told FIVEaa in a second interview this morning there was ample current information on the EPA’s website.

A check of the website information shows the most recent public statement was dated April 2013 – although the website was updated this morning.

“The EPA has been advised by Monroe Australia of the results from the second round of indoor testing at Clovelly Park,” it says.

“The results identified three out of five properties with trichloroethelyne (TCE) in indoor air slightly above the reference guideline; however SA Health has advised that there is no immediate risk to the health of residents.”

An undated update to that statement says: “Most recent indoor air testing from November 2013 has been undertaken in certain homes where some higher soil vapour results were found in October. Further results of indoor air testing from November are pending from the international specialist laboratory.

“Review and reporting of the extensive work undertaken by URS Australia will be completed in early 2014, and will be provided to the independent site contamination auditor for review.

“The report will be discussed with the EPA and DHA, to determine what further assessment may be necessary.”

Hunter confirmed today that the information eventually made its way to his office in May this year and was the subject of discussions last week at the government’s Emergency Management Committee.

The committee’s recommendation that residents be relocated made its way the Cabinet on Monday and residents were due to be told today.

After a series of questions in parliament yesterday, that process was brought forward to last night.

That resulted in the EPA issuing an update today: “Residents from 23 Housing SA properties and two private residences in the Clovelly Park area are today being advised that a public health risk had been identified from trichloroethene (TCE) in soil vapour,” it states.

“As a precautionary measure Housing SA residents will be offered to be relocated to other Housing SA properties to allow further investigation work to commence.

“The private residences will be involved in further discussions with appropriate authorities to look at available options. (Justin Pearce is one of those residents.)

“The EPA and SA Health agree that the public health risk requires management to prevent residents from long-term exposure to vapour, while further investigations occur and remediation options are determined. SA Health’s advice is that this should happen over the next six months.”

“Residents of a further 14 properties, not subject to relocation but located immediately south of the mitigation area, are being advised today of the further investigation work that will be undertaken to determine the nature and extent of the contamination in the area.”

Hunter maintains the health risk is low.

“This is not an acute situation,” he told FIVEaa’s breakfast program.

“The exposure to TCE is a chronic issue; this is a legacy issue of course from industrial uses, it goes back 50 or more years, and it’s not uncommon.

“We’ve been monitoring it in the groundwater and the soil for a number of years now and advising the local residents of it.

“What we’re doing is out of an abundance of caution.”

Adelaide University’s Professor of Public Health, Dino Pisaniello, later told FIVEaa’s Leon Byner that research on the effects of TCE was still in its early stages.

“The concerns are legitimate,” Professor Pisaniello said.

“We don’t know all the properties of those chemicals and we’re increasingly finding out as time goes on their effects, particularly on reproductive function, maybe neurological function, these are things that crop up over time.

“It’s a foreign chemical, it’s a synthetic chemical, you wouldn’t find that normally in that naturally in the environment and its health effects therefore are probably, although they’ve been studied in occupational populations, it’s not really the same thing as measuring it in the domestic or general population so therefore we need to treat those with some degree of suspicion but I guess the overall risk, you know, as far as we can tell, is relatively low but it’s not insignificant.”

One new resident who relied on EPA information may well be re-thinking their recent purchase.

A vacant block of land at 13A Ash Avenue Clovelly Park was sold on 13 August 2013.

Sales agent Scott Robinson from Ray White Real Estate told InDaily prospective buyers were pointed in the direction of the EPA website.

“Under the land sales laws there are set searches that are required to be done and apart from being told that there was monitoring of contamination being done, that’s the only information available,” he said.

It’s understood the 298 square metre block sold for around $200,000.

As a “great first home buyer opportunity”, it may have lost its appeal.