SUBMISSION FOR PFAS CONTAMINATION PARLIAMENTRY INQUIRY AFFECTS OF WILLIAMTOWN RAAF BASE CONTAMINATION The O’Connell family properties at . Our properties are approximately 5kilometres from Williamtown RAAF Base. The farm has been in my wife’s family over 100 years. My wife’s grandfather was born on the property in 1900. My wife’s mother and father bought the farm from her uncle in 1960 and we have lived on the property since 1989. Defence’s reckless use and disposal of fire fighting foam at Williamtown RAAF Base is the cause of the PFAS contamination in the townships of Williamtown, Salt Ash and surrounding areas. In the 1980’s there were extensive expansions to Williamtown RAAF Base to cater for the arrival of the F18 fighter planes: (Extensions to the runway, Housing of aircraft, Hardstands, etc). Before the upgrade to the RAAF Base all stormwater coming from the RAAF Base flowed south via Dawson’s Drain into Fullerton Cove. To drain stormwater from the 1980’s expansion to RAAF Base a new drain was to join into Moor’s Drain. Moor’s Drain was dug over 100 years ago to stop water from the Moor’s flooding dairy farms along Nelson Bay Road, in Williamtown and Salt Ash. Moor’s Drain has only one levee bank to stop flooding of properties along Nelson Bay Road. After heavy rain in February 1990 Moor’s drain couldn’t control the extra stormwater being pushed off Williamtown RAAF Base. Moor’s drain overflowed flooding Williamtown and Salt Ash. Water was over Nelson Bay Road, flooding along Lemon Tree Passage Road, Rooke’s Road, and up to Brown’s Road, Salt Ash. Hideaway and Parkland subdivisions were flooded. February 1990 was the first time our property was flooded by water overflowing the Moor’s drain levee bank. After this flooding, the community called a meeting with Port Stephens Council. At this meeting Port Stephens Council took control of Moor’s drain. They constructed a new drain and levee system. This new drain stopped the flooding of properties along Nelson Bay Road at Williamtown and Salt Ash. The flooding moved down stream to the subdivisions of Hideaway, Parklands and the school at Salt Ash. The developers of the subdivisions put the stormwater drainage off their development s into Moor’s Drain. When flooding came down Moor’s drain it backed up the stormwater drainage flooding the properties in the subdivisions. Port Stephens Council then lowered the levee bank by 600 millimetres in height and 500 metres in length in 2 places, to prevent the flooding of the subdivisions. This action by Port Stephens Council has turned the properties along Nelson Bay Road between the RAAF Base and Richardson Road into a PFAS Contaminated Retention Pond. The floodwater is now trapped behind Nelson Bay Road to the south, to the north by the Moor’s drain levee bank and east by Richardson Road. This PFAS Contaminated floodwater is trapped on properties along Nelson Bay Road for months on end with nowhere to go. Defence has been using these properties as an off base retention pond for their PFAS contaminated stormwater runoff for 28 years. Our property is 220+ acres, we run beef cattle and grow hay. We are constantly flooded by contaminated water from Williamtown RAAF Base overflowing the lowered sections of the Moor’s drain levee bank. One year we were flooded 6 times in 12 months approximately 10 years ago. The April 2015 flood our paddocks were covered with contaminated water until the end of August, the ground did not dry out enough to plough until November. We were flooded again January 2016, the seed we planted in November and December died, and we lost the hay crop. Defence and Government Departments have drop in meetings, we go to these meetings. The information given out by these departments is misleading, lies or just B.S. for example:- EPA Our bore water and tank water was tested by defence. I rang defence for 3 months for the results of water tests on our property. When I couldn’t get the water results from Defence I rang EPA and asked if they could tell me the level of PFAS contamination in Moor’s drain as it flowed through the back of our farm and our property is flooded by the Moor’s drain. EPA told me the water was clear and I could drink the water in the drain and even clean my teeth with it. Department of Primary Industry We asked DPI to test our cattle for PFAS contamination. 2 vets came to our farm, they didn’t want to test our cattle. They told us not to kill and eat our meat, just sell the cattle at the saleyards. DPI at another meeting told us if we moved our cattle to a PFAS free area/property our cattle will be PFAS free in 6 weeks. Health Department and Newcastle Uni drop in meetings I have high PFAS levels in my blood. I asked the Health Department Doctor about my high PFAS readings, his response was: “so you have high PFAS levels in your blood”. Health Department Another drop in meeting we asked Health Department Doctor could the dust from ploughing cause the high PFAS levels in our blood. He told us dust inside the home is more dangerous to human health than the dust outside. We tried to tell him when we plough our contaminated soil we must create contaminated dust. This dust gets up your nose, you blow your nose its black, it gets in your throat, when you spit its black. They keep telling us inside dust is more dangerous. This is just a few examples of the lies and misleading information Government Departments are telling us and the community. Defence has known about the affects of PFAS since 1987. They kept this information to themselves. Defence didn’t release news of the PFAS contamination until September 2015 to the public. Defence have done nothing to clean up PFAS contamination off base to date. When our property was flooded in January 2016 I rang Defence asking for the surface water and soil to be tested when there was floodwater 1 metre deep over our property. It was mid 2017 before testing took place, the floodwater was long gone. There were a number of rain events between the flooding and the time of testing. The rain, sun and wind would have affected contamination of the soil and surface water diluting the testing. When the soil sample was taken they scratched about half a teaspoon of the top. When we take a soil sample we dig down 200 to 300 millimetres to get the sample. The surface water had all but dried up, they found small pools of water in some drains. There were 8 water tests taken and we only received 4 test results. I call this selective testing, not a true test of levels of contamination on our property. O’CONNELL FAMILY BLOOD PFAS TEST RESULTS PFHXS 36 PFOS 150 PFOA 3.2 PFAS 189.2 PFHXS 15 PFOS 55 PFOA 2.6 PFAS 72.9 PFHXS 30 PFOS 100 PFOA 2.9 PFAS 132.9 PFHXS 29 PFOS 130 PFOA 2.8 PFAS 161.8 Affects PFAS Contamination Is Having ON Our Health and Wellbeing No incentive to improve property. Push ourselves to work farm. Broken hearted – no hope. Our dreams dashed. We don’t want to live on a contaminated property. We don’t want to produce contaminated meat. Contamination is on our minds 24hours a day 7 days a week. We planned to retire and live out the rest of our lives on this property and hand it on to our family as it was handed to us. Salt Ash was a great place to live, central to Newcastle, Port Stephens, Raymond Terrace, hospitals and doctors and close to Stockton Beach to go fishing. We feel everything we have worked for over many years is gone, taken away from us, there is no hope. PFAS doesn’t break down, it’s with us forever. The constant flooding of our property from Moor’s drain since 1990 has made the farm not viable. One example of the cost due to flooding April 2015 storm flooded our property, floodwater layed on our paddocks until August (4 months). Our paddocks didn’t dry enough to plough until mid November (another 2.5 to 3 months). We planted our seed late November and into December. The seed started to grow, on the first week of January 2016 our property was flooded again, wiping out our hay crop. 2015 amount outlayed to grow hay $25440.00 Seed $9497.00 Chicken Manure $6622.00 Lime –Delivered and Spread $6721.00 Diesel – fuel to plough & set seed $2000.00 Spray – weed killer $ 600.00 Total $25440.00 2015-2016 Summer we only made 90 round bales of grass hay due to the flood. If needed we have maps and photos of the flooding from 1990 to 2016. Defence must buy out contaminated properties so residents of the RED ZONE can get their lives back to normal and grow a clean/green product again. Defence can find 100’s of billions dollars for toys for the boys. Surely Defence can find 1 or 2 billion dollars to buy out contaminated properties in RED ZONES. Regards, The O’Connell Family .