The vexed and continuing issue of water contamination in the Blue Mountains looks like being kicked down the road until well past next year’s NSW state election as government agencies appear to hasten slowly towards coming to grips with the problem.
Others, however, have a greater sense of urgency.
Medlow Bath home owners living close to the site of a 1992 tanker crash site have been warned to stop eating homegrown vegetables after testing by NSW Environment Protection Authority of some properties revealed their garden soils were laced with high levels of dangerous so-called forever chemicals.
And a local community action group has funding for a class action lawsuit against Sydney Water for supplying contaminated water to 78,000 Blue Mountains residents.
The links between forever chemicals (known as PFAS) and water contamination has been known for years. They are a family of synthetic chemicals that persist for long periods in the natural environment and have been linked to cancer, infertility and other health problems, even at low doses.
We were the first to reveal PFAS contamination in the Blue Mountains, and that the likely cause was a 1992 Great Western Highway tanker crash which resulted in the use of dangerous firefighting foam. The chemicals contaminated two dams that WaterNSW has since disconnected from the water supply and the sediment in the creek after months of playing down their presence.
As the Herald’s Caitlin Fitzsimmons reports, the latest testing in Medlow Bath reveals PFAS have also permeated groundwater underneath residential homes in the area.
Last November, the EPA began visiting 16 properties in Medlow Bath near the crash site and detected PFAS levels above health guidelines in some of the soil samples collected. Few home-grown produce samples were found to have PFAS detections, but residents were warned against eating fruit and vegetables from their gardens. Some even felt compelled to rip up their crops.
The EPA is now working with WaterNSW and other authorities on a detailed site investigation of PFAS contamination in the Upper Blue Mountains drinking water catchment.
It will include an assessment and review of an initial investigation, water sampling, a human health and ecological risk assessment. WaterNSW expects it will take about 12 months to complete.
Pardon our cynicism, but such a timeline would probably put a final report just beyond the reach of next year’s state election campaign and well before the establishment of a national PFAS watchdog and standardised guidelines for drinking water across all states and territories as recommended by a Senate select committee last year.
The poisoned vegetable patches of Medlow Bath understandably alarm residents.
But Sydney Water is playing hardball. It has reportedly moved to restrict the water supply of a Katoomba resident who, hoping to prod the authority into talking about the impact of PFAS, refused to pay her water bill.
It is the kind of begrudging transparency, denial and obscuration that has accompanied every PFAS revelation. Bureaucracies must be upfront and open. They should not be raising new questions and fears.
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CORRECTION
An earlier version of this story said the Katoomba resident’s water would be cut-off. Sydney Water would in fact restrict the water flow but maintain it at a safe level. The reference to the resident refusing to pay her rates has been updated to water bill for clarity.
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