Questions about the ongoing Shoalhaven Council investigation into a PFAS incident that involved 100,000 litres of PFAS contaminated waste water being discharged into the Shoalhaven sewer system in March will be raised in state Parliament today.
More than a month after the incident was reported to the State’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) by Shoalhaven Council the community remains in the dark about what happened and what action will be taken. Independent MP and Shoalhaven local Justin Field will ask a question in the State’s Upper House today seeking information about the incident and asking why the EPA isn’t conducting the investigation.
Mr Field said, “It’s not good enough that more than a month after the incident was reported that the most basic information about the investigation is not available to the public and river users. I’ll be asking why the state’s environmental watchdog isn’t conducting this investigation and keeping the community up to date and I’ll be seeking a timeline on the investigation process
“There are a number of legacy PFAS contamination issues in the region. The Shoalhaven river and many of local creeks subject to seafood warnings. PFAS contamination has been found in creeks running into the Jervis Bay Marine Park and in the Aboriginal community at Wreck Bay face warnings about eating local seafood and some bush foods due to contaminated soils. We just keep hearing about more and more PFAS issues and the sentiment in the community is that nothing is really happening to deal with it. Many people feel like they aren’t being informed and don’t know what the response is,” Mr Field said.
The reports allege that Sikorsky Aircraft Australia, a maintenance provider at HMAS Albatross, discharged PFAS contaminated water in the Shoalhaven sewer system with the water being processed through the Shoalhaven Waste Water treatment system before being discharged into the Shoalhaven River.
