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Drilling got underway on Friday to settle the argument about future development on Kununurra's Priority One protection zone.
The Department of Environment brought up its own drilling rig and crew from Perth to drill various locations around the area known as the Borrow Pits between Kimberleyland Holiday Park and the track to the old diving platform.
The area has been a bone of contention since it was added to the existing protection area surrounding Kununurra's bore fields - source of the town's domestic water.
At the time, adding the extra area was seen as a knee-jerk reaction to the clearing of feral leucaena trees by Darren Spackman.
Mr Spackman wanted to use a portion of the area for his tour boat and house boat operations.
If the area was indeed part of the source from Lake Kununurra for the bore fields, then this raised a very serious concern.
Slap bang in the middle of it was the Borrow Pits, the site from which material was taken to build the levy bank that runs from the Victoria Highway past Kona Lakeside Tourist Park and on through the Lake Kununurra Golf Club.
The Borrow Pits then became the town's rubbish dump, back in the time when cotton was being sprayed about 60 times a year.
The rubbish contractor of the time was Howard Young and he has strong recollections of numerous chemical drums being at the site.
Department of Environment water source protection manager Tony Laws and field geologist Sandie McHugh were in Kununurra last week to address a public meeting and oversee the drilling operation.
Mr Laws said he expected to be able to announce their findings within a couple of weeks.
He said that even before the first drill hole had been completed there were things showing up that opened up many different scenarios, but it would be reckless to make any predictions until all the facts had been gathered.
The public meeting at the Country Club on Wednesday evening attracted a very small audience of mostly councillors, Department of Environment employees and Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley staff.
Mr Laws delivered a comprehensive lecture and Powerpoint presentation about the necessity of preserving a safe drinking water source and the possible scenarios that would emerge from the drilling tests.
He also highlighted problems associated with some of the alternative bore field sites that have been suggested.
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