Buybacks for Red Zone residents ruled out ahead of federal budget

BY JARROD MELMETH

Tuesday night's federal budget may include a $73 million package to connect PFAS affected communities, including those in Williamtown, to clean drinking water, but any chance of the government buying back those properties has been ruled out.

The funding was announced within hours of the release of a report by the government's expert health panel which concluded that there is "limited to no evidence" linking human disease to higher exposure.

Paterson MP Meryl Swanson has accused the government of reannouncing money which has already been allocated.

"Of that $73 million, $55.2 million has already been spent. I do not think the Turnbull government should be lauded for simply agreeing to stop contaminating peoples water and provide them with clean drinking water, which is a basic human right anyhow. There is so much more that really needs to be done here.

"I actually think it is really more about politicking. They have dropped a 400-page report via a difficult to find website on budget eve when people are very busy looking at budget items and working on what is going to be in and out of the budget. They have tried to really bring it in under the budget cloud," Ms Swanson said.

Williamtown resident Lindsay Clout said a buyback was something residents were really hoping for.

"They were hoping for some glimmer of hope that they would be able to be moved out, some level of compensation. The problem that we have got is the contamination stigma has destroyed house prices and there are hundreds of people that want to move away from this and they cannot get out because they cannot sell their properties. They are trapped," Mr Clout said.

Paterson MP Meryl Swanson with Red Zone affected residents.

Hemp Breakthrough For Williamtown Contamination Crisis

BY IAN CROUCH and JESSICA ROUSE

The humble hemp seed could hold the key to solving the Williamtown contamination crisis.

Researchers at the University of Newcastle say they've discovered a breakthrough which could resolve the ongoing situation at Williamtown using hemp seeds to remove the firefighting chemicals responsible for the contamination from the water.

Dr Brett Turner from the University's Centre Of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering made the discovery after being intrigued by news stories about residents of Williamtown having their blood tested for PFOS and PFOA contaminants.

"There's at least one protein in the human blood responsible for transporting around the body and this particular protein seems to have fairly strong analogies with the protein in hemp so we acquired some to test on the ground water from Williamtown and we were absolutely astounded at the results," said Dr Brett.

The Centre has received a grant of $600,000 from the state government to investigate the ability to treat large volumes of contaminated water. The university has also contributed an extra $220,000.

"So the money is to drive the research forward a little bit more and hopefully get to a point where we can have a small scale filter system, that we can go out hopefully to Lake Cochran at Williamtown and do some larger volumetric testing," said Dr Brett.

Image Newcastle Herald

The researchers also want to look into how fast the reaction occurs on the larger scale, what the optimum dose is needed to remove the contaminants and find a solution to destroying the contaminants once they're removed from the water.

Dr Turner says although the research is in its early stages, he is very confident this could be the start of something big.

"We're very confident and very hopeful. The initial results have removed the PFOA levels to below the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines in one part and we've had very very good removal, over 99.2 per cent removal of the PFOS as well,"

"The initial results were absolutely astounding and we hope to move forward so we can do something productive and useful for the people n the red zone and other people that are affected around the world."

New Toxic Chemical Guidelines Impact Williamtown Residents

BY IAN CROUCH

Residents impacted by the chemical contamination at the Williamtown RAAF Base are calling for an apology from enHealth after Food Standards Australia and New Zealand lowered the recommended safe levels of PFOS and PFOA in drinking water.

The new standard brings Australia in line with the more conservative US recommended levels, which is what the community had been originally calling for.

The safe level of PFOS has been lowered from .5 to .07 micrograms per litre, while the PFOA level has been slashed from 5 to 0.56 micrograms.

Williamtown residents are again being told to avoid eating home-grown food using contaminated water.

Residents In The Williamtown Red Zone Face More Uncertainty Picture:newsofthearea.com

Meryl Swanson calls on Health Minister in wake of international PFOA and PFOS findings.

BY JARROD MELMETH

Federal Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson is calling on the Health Minister Sussan Ley to explain the ramifications of the "draft risk profile" for PFOA adopted by United Nations group The Stockholm Convention's Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee.

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals.

The "draft risk profile" states "PFOA, its salts and related compounds are persistent, bio accumulative and toxic to animals and humans" and that "PFOA and it's salts and related compounds are likely, as a result of their long-range environmental transport, to lead to adverse human health impacts."

Health Guidelines in Australia are that "there is currently no consistent evidence that exposure to PFOS and PFOA causes adverse human health effects."

Meryl Swanson says she wants to know whether these findings will have any effect on Australian Guidelines.

"I have written to the Health Minister to ask her to explain the ramifications of this advancement and the adoption of the draft risk profile from the United Nations and find out what that means for us here in Australia. Are we taking that into consideration when we're weighing up whats happening with Williamtown."

"We need to make sure that we are getting world class information on what is happening in terms of research across the globe so that we get the very best solutions."

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will be meeting with Williamtown residents today.

Federal Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson. Photo Courtesy
of Facebook.

Prime Minister Pledges Remediation Package for Williamtown

BY IAN CROUCH

 The Williamtown RAAF Base contamination crisis has become a key battleground for the federal election.

Less than TWO weeks after Labor committed to funding voluntary blood testing and a taskforce to investigate remediation options, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has this morning pledged a re-elected Coalition government will commit $55-million to a remediation package at Williamtown and the Oakey base in Queensland.

The package includes voluntary blood testing for residents in the red zone, and a study looking into the causes and health effects of the fire fighting foam contamination.

A dedicated community liaison officer would also be appointed as part of new mental health and counseling services for residents.

Malcolm Turnbull