Residents living in and around the Williamtown contaimination red zone have the opportunity to go along to information sessions tonight and tomorrow to hear from the Department of Defence.
The information sessions will focus on the findings of the 2017 Environmental Site Assessment and the 2017 Off-Site Human Health Risk Assessment.
The latest report found the maitenance zone, or red zone, now extends to include another 250 properties.
The details for the events are:
Community information presentation: Tuesday 5 December 2017
at the Murrook Cultural Centre, 2163 Nelson Bay Road,
Williamtown, 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Community walk-in sessions: Wednesday 6 December 2017
at the Murrook Cultural Centre, 2163 Nelson Bay Road,
Williamtown,
Morning session: 9:00am - 12:00pm
Afternoon session: 2:00pm - 6:00pm
At the walk-in sessions local residents and businesses will be able to ask questions, one-on-one with Defence and other government department agencies on the report findings.
Port Stephens MP Kate Washington said the information sessions will be quite saddening for many of the residents.
"It's going to be tough news for residents because I think it is going to really be speaking to the potential poor health outcomes that flowed from this contamination. Whilst it won't specifically be about health, it will be about how the contaminants travels to humans."
There are more sessionss planned in the near future, but Kate Washington fears they may not deliver what the community wants.
"We're hearing from defence today that the community meetings coming up are about the conclusion of their assessment of the human health. Now for me that's a little bit concerning. It suggest that there may not be any future testing done, it suggests that this might be the end of the road for Defence's purposes in terms of determinin goutcomes for humans."
