Creek contaminated with PFAS foam.

28 August 2024

ALAN HAYES

 

PFAS, used for years to coat non-stick coating, and in flame-retardant equipment, moisture-repellent clothing, cosmetics, insecticides, and food packaging, as well as specialty industry products, like firefighting foam, will easily pervade waterways and the food supply chain. But these ‘forever chemicals’ have a ‘dark’ and ‘sinister’ side to them - once they’re in the environment – or our bodies – they don’t degrade any further.

 

PFAS have been linked to environmental and health issues, including some cancers, but a lot remains unknown about the true scale and potential impacts of the problem – including how much is in our water supply. They have also been detected in the liver of a dead platypus in Ourimbah Creek.

 

“Once again Australia shows little interest in protecting the health of its citizens.” said Gary Blaschke OAM spokesperson Future Sooner.

 

“PFAS were widely used in firefighting foam for decades with Munmorah and Colongra training grounds and Vales Point and Eraring were fast to also adopt it. We’ve been campaigning on the impacts of these ‘forever chemicals’ since 2017.

 

“Finally, in May this year the EPA declared the old Munmorah power station site significantly contaminated. They will tell you that PFAS is in just about everything from frying pans to firefighting foam, but the EPA hasn’t come out saying that frying pans are a source of significant contamination.

 

“PFAS adversely impacts everything from our children’s development to the integrity of our immune system. There is no safe level of exposure.”

In November 2023, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) claimed that they were undertaking an investigation into the PFAS problem.

 

“The EPA is leading an investigation program to assess the legacy of PFAS use across NSW. With the assistance of the NSW PFAS Technical Advisory Group, which includes NSW Health, Department of Primary Industries and the Office of Environment and Heritage, we provide impacted residents with tailored, precautionary dietary advice to help them reduce any exposure to PFAS,” they said.

 

“The initial investigations can take approximately six months, with further testing undertaken where required.”

 

Almost twelve months later, there are no real conclusions about community health. Our water authorities continue to default to Australia’s regulated limit of 70 nanograms per litre – well above the four nanograms per litre combined PFOS and PFOA limit in the US.

 

Both Australia and the US still, however, lag well behind Canada’s recommended drinking water guidelines: rather than limiting only two or three forms of PFAS in drinking water, Canada tallies up the sum of all 14,000 PFAS and limits the overall number to 30 nanograms per litre.

 

In 2023, the WHO declared PFOA, a type of PFAS, a ‘category one’ human carcinogen, which initially raised concerns about 20 years ago. But our acceptable levels for PFAS and PFOA in drinking water is perilously so much higher, creating a recipe for a future health disaster.

 

Sydney Water and our other water authorities would be aware of the stringent Canadian guidelines but have demonstrated very little interest in the PFAS levels now being found in our riverine systems – their cavalier remarks confirming this by their possible ignorance or simply ‘it’ll be alright, mate’!

 

But even the possibility of Sydney Water being ignorant to the severity of PFAS doesn’t ‘fly up the flag pole’. A University of New South Wales-led (UNSW) international study found that 69 per cent of global groundwater samples with no known contamination source exceeded Health Canada’s safe drinking water criteria, while 32 per cent of the same samples exceeded the US’s proposed drinking water hazard index.

 

The study also found that that much of our global source water exceeds PFAS safe drinking limits.

 

Professor Denis O’Carroll, senior author of UNSW study said, “Many of our source waters are above PFAS regulatory limits.”

 

“We already knew that PFAS is pervasive in the environment, but I was surprised to find out the large fraction of source waters that are above drinking water advisory recommendations,” he said.

 

The research team pulled together PFAS measurements from sources around the world, including government reports, databases, and peer-reviewed literature. Altogether, they collated more than 45,000 data points, which span roughly 20 years.

 

On the Central Coast, however, it is known that PFAS has migrated into the Tuggerah Lakes system. A fact that was not recorded by Central Coast Council in water samplings, yet knowing that the amount of PFAS on the land of the former Lake Munmorah power station site would take ten years to treat and remediate.

 

Gary Blaschke said, “On the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie the air is polluted, the lake is polluted now we have PFAS contamination, all from coal-fired power stations. We know PFAS forms plumes in the ground and in ground water and it moves.”

 

“Is it safe to eat home-grown vegetables if you live near a power station or decommissioned power station? Mr Blaschke said.

 

“Fishing is not permitted in power station canals or water systems and there is a ban on net fishing in Budgewoi Creek, plus a seasonal night-time ban on fishing in the Munmorah power station outlet canal. What does that tell you?

 

“This is why we held a Citizens Inquiry. To give the community a vehicle to have their say and tell their stories about how their health has been impacted by the fossil fuel industry and its coal-fired power stations.”

 

So, why aren't our governing authorities and regulators taking PFAS and PFOA contamination seriously? The evidence of ‘forever chemicals’ contaminating our environment and their impact of human health is well-known and documented. Failing to act, because of outdated and inadequate regulations, is not acceptable – it is contempt for human life.

 

Yet despite our lawmakers playing down the looming human risks from PFAS, in 2019, up to 40,000 residents of Australian towns contaminated with chemicals from firefighting foams began the biggest class action lawsuit in the country’s history. There were fears that the chemicals may increase the risk of cancer. The lawsuit represents eight locations near military bases around the country.

 

Residents in the Central Coast's northern suburbs, who now find they are living near contaminated areas, fear they have unusually higher rates of cancer than elsewhere across the Coast. Wyong and its surrounding areas have some of the highest rates of individual cancers, including colorectal cancer in men, which was 44 per cent above the state average, and lung cancer at 53 per cent above average for men and 43 per cent in women.

 

The human impact from PFAS, in spite of the cavalier attitude of the NSW EPA, the State government, the Federal government and health authorities, is causing grave anxiety in communities across Australia.

Contaminated site and location of proposed water treatment plant at the decommission Colgra Power Station site.

Do our lawmakers and regulators really care?

 

It is evident to people in communities everywhere across the country that ‘forever chemicals’ in their neighbourhood are an invitation for the ‘Grim Reaper’ to pay them a visit. Yet government, who should be earnestly working to protect its citizens, has, instead, adopted an ‘ostrich’ approach – openness and transparency have flown out the door.

 

According to Western Sydney University associate professor Dr Ian Wright, “"There has been a lack of information provided and there's been a growing concern about this particularly given what's happening in the United States and contamination of many of their water supplies."

 

Although Australia's drinking water guidelines are currently under review, with a major focus on PFAS that is looking at relevant international guidance, such as the US EPA to determine whether Australia's guidelines are still appropriate, the results of the review aren’t expected to be released until next year. Meanwhile, communities in affected areas are still left in the dark and the exponential increase in cancers, unexplained by local demographics.

 

What has raised alarmed bells, however, is the discovery of PFAS contamination in Ourimbah Creek and other Eastern NSW River systems – confirming that ‘forever chemicals’ are far more prevalent in Australia's environment than previously understood. Scientists from Western Sydney University (WSU) have discovered PFAS in the livers of eight deceased platypuses.

 

Lead researcher and PhD candidate Katherine Warwick was reported as saying the findings "shocked" her, considering the animals came from areas ranging from remote to urban, meaning there is pollution in those environments.

 

"Considering PFAS shouldn't be there in the first place, it's a lot," Ms Warwick said.

 

"What that's telling us is PFAS contamination is much more widespread than what we know."

 

What has also now been uncovered is that the government has been aware that cancer-linked ‘forever chemicals’ have been detected at water filtration plants across Sydney, with authorities quietly releasing data about the level of man-made perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) in drinking sources.

 

Sydney Water has been monitoring additional water outlets since June this year and detected PFAS levels considered unsafe in the United States and Canada, yet continue to play down the gravity of the contamination.

 

The highest levels were detected in the Blue Mountains, at the Cascade Dam water filtration plants at Blackheath and Katoomba.

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency considers there is no safe level of PFAS in drinking water, due to health risks it presents to humans, but the Australian government guidelines continue to state there is a safe level of exposure.

 

So, while our politicians and pencil-pushing bureaucrats pontificate about the severity of ‘forever chemicals’, whole communities will continue to be exposed to government negligence - PFAS contaminants are still an underestimated risk but one that will continue to see people die unnecessarily from PFAS-related cancers, while ever our waterways, which are used for drinking, agriculture, fishing, swimming and other activities, remain sullied.

 

It behooves the Minns Government to come clean about its forward plan to deal with the PFAS contamination problem – otherwise class action litigation from community groups, including the Central Coast, will plague this current government as well as future governments.

 

Downplaying the human health risks of PFAS exposure is not an option.

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