ACT authorities set timeline for releasing test results for potential cancer-causing PFAS chemicals
The former Charnwood fire station — now a childcare centre — is one of four confirmed contamination sites in Canberra, but parents will have to wait until next year to get the results of testing.
Canberra Star
Don't miss out on the headlines from Canberra Star. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Alleged Canberra gunman faces court after shooting near Manuka
- Drunken sailor to be booted from navy after groping women at pub
- AFP officer “punched in face before act of indecency”, police allege
- Pimp who preyed on “naive” sex workers guilty of 14 rapes
PARENTS who send their kids to a Canberra childcare centre at a former suburban fire station will learn early next year precisely how contaminated the site is with potentially cancer-causing firefighting chemicals.
Chief Fire Officer Mark Brown told an ACT Legislative Assembly committee on Wednesday he expected test results measuring PFAS contamination at nine sites to be returned by early 2020.
The sites are all current and former fire stations which are most likely to have been contaminated.
The testing would take eight to 10 weeks, and would shortly go out to tender, Mr Brown said.
The nine sites include the former Charnwood Fire Station at 35 Lhotsky Street.
The ACT government sold the site for $2.1 million in 2016 and planning authorities approved the site being repurposed as a childcare centre the following year.
It is now occupied by Ducklings Early Education.
Police and Emergency Services Minister Mick Gentleman told the committee on Wednesday the health ramifications of PFAS exposure were uncertain.
Some studies have suggested exposure to the chemical might be linked to auto-immune conditions and some forms of cancer.
Groundwater and soil contamination from run-off at defence force sites has prompted a string of major compensation claims as far afield as Katherine in the Northern Territory and Williamtown near Newcastle.
ACT Fire and Rescue began phasing out PFAS foams in 2004, and stopped using them completely by 2005.
The childcare centre is among four confirmed contamination sites in the ACT, the other three of which are Canberra Airport, the West Belconnen Resource Management Centre and the former Belconnen Fire Station and Training Centre.
Earlier this year, a separate Legislative Assembly Committee heard there were 22 potential PFAS contamination sites in the ACT, on top of the four confirmed sites.