Fire and Rescue NSW is yet to investigate more than 500 of the 600 sites across NSW flagged as being potentially contaminated with cancer-linked “forever chemicals” despite many of its stations being located in residential areas near schools and daycare centres, an inquiry has heard.
The opening day of a state parliamentary inquiry into per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contamination also heard calls for all drinking water providers in NSW to be forced to test their supplies and release the results to the public.
Children playing in toxic firefighting foam in Kellyville, circa 2001.Credit: Fire Brigade Employees Union
It comes amid concerns the testing regimes are being shrouded in secrecy in some regional towns.
The inquiry heard that Fire and Rescue NSW has identified more than 600 sites across NSW that may be potentially contaminated with the toxins, which the agency used in firefighting foam until 2007.
The sites span current and former fire stations, training grounds and locations where large volumes of the foam were deployed during emergencies.
Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said Fire and Rescue NSW had tasked two dedicated staff members with its investigation efforts. It was managing PFAS at 35 sites and had completed remediation at five in the past year.
He believed a large proportion of the 600 sites may not need active management due to their location, land use, and “likely level of contamination that may or may not be there”.
“We’ve identified the ones that are the greatest concern, and we’re starting from that and working our way down with the highest priorities getting attention first,” he said.
“I do accept it’s going to take a long time.”
The Fire Brigade Employees Union (FBEU) argued some level of PFAS exposure was likely at a high proportion of the sites.
Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Senior union organiser Jonathon Wright was concerned about the limitations of the “very basic” employee survey used to help determine which sites to prioritise.
The union called on the state government to commit funds to expedite the program. FBEU state secretary Leighton Drury said he had been briefed that investigations could take up to 50 years.
“A lot of those fire stations are in residential areas,” he said. “They are in areas that now have daycares and schools next to them, where obviously playing in the dirt is how you get exposed to some of this stuff, and that is becoming quite a problem.”
The inquiry’s chair, Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, asked whether Fire and Rescue NSW had requested additional funding from the government.
“We have previously made submissions around increasing the funding available to us, we continue to work with [the] government on that,” Fewtrell responded.
On Friday, the ABC reported it had approached all 89 regional drinking water suppliers regarding whether they had tested for PFAS and 34 either did not respond to questions or did not supply results.
Western Sydney University professor Ian Wright told the inquiry such testing should be mandatory.
“It needs to be done in an open, transparent and timely manner. Right now, we are far from that,” he said.
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