Harmful PFAS chemicals at former Petrie paper mill site, near uni campus, discharged into river system
Tens of millions of dollars is being spent to decontaminate the old Petrie paper mill site, found to harbour harmful PFAS chemicals that had also been discharged into North Pine River.
Moreton
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HAZARDOUS chemicals with the potential to cause serious environmental harm have been discharged into waterways from the Petrie Mill site, a government report found.
An Environmental Evaluation by the State Department of Environment, obtained by the ABC, revealed that PFAS chemicals had been detected in a number of locations on the site.
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PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals of emerging international concern due to their toxicity, persistence and potential to bioaccumulate in the environment and in people, the report stated.
When Moreton Bay Council bought the site from Orora in 2015, the contract of sale included an agreement that Orora would decommission the mill.
The department in September 2017 issued Orora with a notice to investigate the source, nature and extent of the contamination caused by the release of PFAS into the environment.
The notice stated that activities conducted on site had potential to cause environmental harm.
The activities in question were waste disposal, pulp or paper manufacturing and the resultant releases of PFAS, AOX and manganese in the environment.
This included North Pine River, Yebri Creek and potentially Whites Creek, which may have flowed into other tributaries and into Moreton Bay.
The council had previously analysed leachate and waste samples from the site and found the pollutant Perflurooctane Sulfonate (PFOS), an ingredient in fabric protectors.
Known as a PFAS chemical, the PFOS contamination at the site was believed to have come from feedstock used in the paper manufacturing process which included water resistant coatings.
“The PFAS was understood to be present in various streams from the manufacturing activity including wastewaters, water treatment pond sludges, leachate from the onsite waste disposal cells and other waste deposits understood to be buried onsite,” the department report stated. When the council bought the site for $50.5 million in July 2015, its decommissioning was expected to take about two years.
Though given the discovery of the toxic chemicals, it has morphed into a “significant and complex” exercise involving multiple government agencies that is still ongoing.
Orora in its FY19 annual report stated it had to budget additional costs of $35 million for the process.
It engaged specialist environmental consulting firm Easterly Point to manage the works.
“At the date of this report (June 2019), decommissioning work continues on site … however, given the complexity and multiple stakeholders involved, there remains a risk of further currently unidentified costs in the future,” Orora’s annual report stated.
Easterly Point stated on its website that contaminants on the mill site included PFAS chemicals, asbestos, metals, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), ash and coal wastes, paper wastes and fuel storage residues.
USC, which is building its Moreton Bay campus within the mill precinct, told Pine Rivers Press that its foundation building was being constructed on a previously undeveloped area next to the mill site.
“Future campus construction will occur on areas of the former paper mill site that were not used for industrial purposes — such as administration areas and carparks,” a USC spokesman said.
“These areas have been independently tested and removed from the Environmental Management Register and the Contaminated Land Register.
“Environmental remediation has been front and centre of dealings between USC and the council and the university is committed to a partnership with the council to return large areas of the wider development to their natural state.”
The mill site has been listed on the Environmental Management Register since April 17, 1996.
PFAS stands for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances and are manufactured chemicals used in products that resist heat, oil, stains and water.
The chemicals have been used around the world in many common household products and specialty applications.
As a result, most people living in developed nations have some PFAS in their body.
The ABC this week revealed a list of about 60 sites in Queensland where PFAS have been identified.
The list included 26 fire stations, eight current or former defence sites, six airports, four ports, three town water supplies and several waste facilities.
It took more than a year for ABC News to access the documents from Queensland’s Department of Environment under Right to Information.
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