SUBMISSION: The Committee Secretary, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade RE: INQUIRY INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF PER- AND POLYFLUOROALKYL SUBSTANCES (PFAS) CONTAMINATION IN AND AROUND DEFENCE BASES SUBMITTED BY: Meryl Swanson MP, Member for Paterson In September 2015 people in the communities around RAAF Base Williamtown awoke to the Page One news in Fairfax publication The Newcastle Herald that PFOS and PFOA had been detected in groundwater, creeks and the nearby tidal cove. People on the largely rural properties were advised to avoid drinking bore water, eating fish caught from contaminated waterways, or consuming eggs produced on properties in the area. The contamination plume, which has since been identified and modelled out to the year 2050, is due to the widespread use of Aqueous Firefighting Foam during training exercises on the base. Soil, drains and a man-made dam (Lake Cochrane) on the base itself were shown to be heavily contaminated. A combination of underground aquifers, a network of drains, the sand-based soil and the sheer topography of the surface led PFAS to leach widely into the community. Blood testing revealed that many people carry extremely high levels of the chemical in their bodies. Indeed, babies were born with alarming readings. As time progressed, residents were given apparently conflicting advice from State and Federal government bodies. THE NSW EPA’s ‘red zone’ map morphed several times. As boundaries changed over the months and then years, people found themselves suddenly subject to precautionary advice they had previously been instructed to disregard. Maps issued by the NSW EPA and the Department of Defence varied. Governmental handling of this situation, at all levels, has been a great source of anxiety and anger for people who live on contaminated land. In addition to these practical concerns, there has been an obvious disconnect between State and Federal agencies on this matter. The discrepancies in the maps, and advice, have caused great confusion among my constituents. Again and again I’m asked: “If PFAS causes no proven ill effects to human health [the Federal Government’s standard line], why does the EPA [State] have such extensive precautionary guidelines?” It’s a good question. People can’t use their bores or water tanks. They can’t eat their beef or game animals. They can’t consume home-grown fruit or vegetables. Even the eggs are banned. Properties that were purchased for agricultural, equine, stock farming or any other outdoor pursuit are no longer fit for purpose. Children have been advised not to splash in puddles. As the hostility and blame-game between the two agencies escalated - it was at times barely veiled during Community Reference Group meetings – community representatives increasingly lost faith in the very department entrusted to protect and defend them – the Department of Defence. This lack of trust has been amplified as time has marched on and PFAS continues to escape RAAF Base Williamtown. That’s right – we’re nearly three years into this saga and contamination is still escaping the base. The Department of Defence has not been able to implement water filtration systems capable of dealing with the volume of water that escapes the base during rain events. And they have not even begun to consider how they are going to clean up off-base contamination. It’s important to note that the Williamtown situation is unique. The way its people were informed of their predicament was horrid and without parallel. The extreme and widespread concentrations of PFAS in water, soil, built structures and people’s bodies is unprecedented in Australia. The underground aquifers, soil configuration and topopgraphy present a complicated and difficult challenge to those who would decontaminate the land and water. This is, however, no excuse for the lengthy buck-passing, excuse-making and contradictory advice my constituents have suffered. The Government has done nothing to win back the trust of those affected by PFAS contamination. As the local member I worked hard to bring Defence Minister Senator Marise Payne and Head of the PFAS Taskforce Senator James McGrath to meet with the people of Williamtown. In May 2017, Senator McGrath spoke on The John Laws program via the Super Radio network, broadcast locally on Radio 2HD, and confirmed that he had developed a package in support of the people of Williamtown and it was actually on his desk. That is now well over a year ago. I have made multiple representations to the Government. These have included letters to the Prime Minister, Senator McGrath, Senator Payne, Minister Pyne and Minister Hunt. My letters are in many cases shunted from minister to minister, if they receive a response at all. It seems that Senator McGrath no longer has carriage of the matter and that it has moved from Prime Minister and Cabinet to Environment and Energy. I have not, however, been officially notified of this, despite being the Federally elected representative of constituents caught in this profoundly serious and damaging situation. The Government appears paralysed into inaction by fear. No one will accept accountability. If there is a process in place, there is no transparency and the people who live this every day are completely in the dark. They are angry and abandoned. They are fearful and disillusioned. They feel deceived and trapped. Their properties are in many cases no longer fit for purpose and have suffered significant depreciation. The NSW Valuer General has documented a 15 per cent drop in land value alone, although the drastically reduced number of sales during the past three years would indicate a collapse in the market. The stigma associated is largely due to a widely publicised report of a 50-person cancer cluster along a four-kilometre stretch of Cabbage Tree Road, just south of the RAAF Base. This has had a potentially indelible impact on the value of homes and properties in this primary contamination area and cast a shroud of fear over every person who lives or works in the area, or has ever spent time there. For those who have chosen to remain on their properties, or indeed have no pathway to leave, the financial impost is still real. People who own their homes outright cannot borrow relatively meagre amounts for home renovations and the like as there is no equity in their homes. To date the Federal Government has provided limited support on a case-by-case basis to businesses that suffered demonstrable financial impact through PFAS contamination but has done absolutely nothing to help the hundreds of families who are trapped on dramatically devalued properties with a stigmatised address and no hope of exiting without extreme financial disadvantage. The Federal Government has done nothing to dispel the stigma. Its long-awaited Expert Health Panel’s report into the effects of PFAS on Human Health was published two months after its promised deadline on an obscure website. Even within its two-page executive summary there were extremely concerning conflicts, namely: At the top of one page the summary advises that “…important health effects for individuals exposed to PFAS cannot be ruled out based on the current evidence”. At the bottom of the same page, it states “… evidence does not support any specific health or disease screening or other health interventions for highly exposed groups in Australia, except for research purposes.” Yet this very report states, and I quote, that ‘the most concerning signal reported in the scientific studies for life-threatening human disease is a possible link with an increased risk of two uncommon cancers: testicular and kidney cancer”. Not surprisingly, this report served only to make my constituents further suspicious of the Government’s health advice and findings in relation to the PFAS family of chemicals. As I mentioned in my cover letter, the people of Williamtown and surrounds are active, engaged and astute. They are energetically pursuing a class action and nationwide community awareness campaign. Their own body of knowledge, built through necessity and drawn from the corners of the globe thanks to the Internet and the global community, has revealed a link between certain PFAS chemicals and human immunosuppression. It is thought that this is why PFAS exposure can lead to the manifestation of a plethora of different cancers and autoimmune conditions. In June a series of reports by Fairfax’s Carrie Fellner further fanned these fears, as she brought a global exclusive to the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age, The Newcastle Herald and multiple other titles in print and online in a series of articles titled “Toxic Secrets”. The reports, which revealed another 21 cases of cancer within 15 years at one high school, were filed from Oakdale in the US town of Minnesota. This is the home of global chemical giant 3M, which has historically manufactured PFAS. 3M paid the State of Minnesota a $AUD1.14billion settlement earlier this year. In the wake of these revelations, and claims that there may be more than 90 PFAS-contaminated sites around Australia, my constituents have rallied. They are determined to share their experiences learnt through almost three heartbreaking years of battling their own government and have launched a nationwide action and awareness group called The Coalition Against PFAS. Morale among residents is at an all-time low. I hear stories of families whose children refuse to let their grandchildren come and visit on PFAS-contaminated properties. There are profound mental health concerns and suicide fears. Several people have been forced to walk away with nothing, simply to feel they are doing all they can to keep their families safe, while others have gone bankrupt trying. We must fix this mess.