Residents living near the Ohakea Air Force Base have cause to be unsatisfied, too.
And the public and media are entitled to wonder why it took more than 2½ years for worrying test results to trigger public warnings about water contamination relating to the use of firefighting foam.
It looks a lot like the Defence Force got in the way of Horizons doing its job.
We are told there were no relevant New Zealand standards in 2015 and the Defence Force sought expertise.
Then in April 2017 the Australian Department of Health issued guidance levels.
Horizons wasn’t notified until December 2017.
Horizons is unimpressed.
More importantly, people drank contaminated water while the Defence Force dithered.
It’s easy to be wise in hindsight, of course, and it seems the Defence Force didn’t initially comprehend the possible ramifications of what it knew.
At the very least, officials were not entitled to keep the regional council in the dark.