South Australia's environment minister should resign over delays in alerting Adelaide residents about potentially dangerous groundwater contamination, according to the opposition.
Officials visited 25 homes in Clovelly Park on Wednesday night, telling residents they would be relocated after latest testing revealed elevated levels of TCE in their soil and air.
TCE, used as a metal cleaner in industrial settings, can be carcinogenic when people are exposed to high levels over an extended period.
Environment Minister Ian Hunter said the government received the report in May and it was then audited by officials before being discussed by Cabinet on Monday.
The government had planned to tell residents on Thursday, but sent out teams earlier after opposition leader Steven Marshall raised the issue in question time on Wednesday.
Mr Marshall on Thursday called for Mr Hunter to resign or be sacked by Premier Jay Weatherill.
"Yesterday, South Australians living in a contaminated area only learned about the health risks they face from groundwater contamination because of a government leak to the State Liberals," he said.
The government had known about the contamination for 48 days, during which time there were 10 parliamentary sitting days when the minister could have raised the issue, he said.
"The dangerous delay in informing residents may have unnecessarily put these South Australians at risk," he said.
"It is completely and utterly unacceptable that it took 52 hours for Labor to communicate a serious public health issue with South Australians after it was agreed to by Cabinet."
Mr Hunter said the government had been communicating with the residents about the issue since about September 2012.
They had been told the TCE was coming up from groundwater, migrating through the soil and maybe concentrating under their floorboards, he told ABC radio on Thursday.
The minister said SA Health had advised the concentrations were unlikely to cause health problems, adding "this is not an acute issue" and residents would be relocated in the coming months.
Most of the properties are Housing Trust and residents will be offered health checks
The premier conceded the issue had been handled badly, telling reporters on Thursday he was "not very pleased" that someone within government leaked the news to the opposition.
But he defended the decision to hold off on informing residents about the contamination, saying cabinet acted on advice from government agencies.
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