EPA takes 'milestone' action against PFAS company 3M Australia
The New South Wales environmental watchdog has taken "milestone" action against a global chemicals manufacturer after discovering PFAS chemicals at an old testing site in the Central West.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (NSW EPA) has issued a clean-up notice to 3M Australia after the forever chemicals were found in soil and water across the 100-hectare Brogans Creek Quarry, south-east of Mudgee.
The inactive limestone site was historically leased by the subsidiary of the US-based company for testing firefighting foams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances between 1980 and 2000.
It is the first time the EPA has taken regulatory action against the Wall Street giant that began manufacturing the chemicals in the 1950s.
The environmental regulator described the contamination as "significant" but said the quarry's remote setting meant there was "limited potential for human exposure".
The World Health Organisation has determined PFOA as carcinogenic to humans, while it classified PFOS as potentially carcinogenic.
Both types of PFAS are found in firefighting foams.
The foams are widely considered to be the biggest contamination source of PFAS in Australia's environment, with high concentrations found at sites where they were formerly used, such as defence force bases.
They were also recently identified as the most likely source of PFAS chemicals in the Blue Mountains' drinking water supply.
The Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF) have been slowly phased out of use in Australia since 2003 but were used for more than three decades since the 1970s.
The NSW EPA has banned their use except for in "catastrophic" circumstances or for fires on a watercraft.
According to the clean-up notice, the current owner of the contaminated Brogans Creek site, Graymont, alerted the EPA to the contamination in January 2022.
The company's site investigation found PFAS was present at elevated concentrations in soil, surface water, sediment, concrete structures and groundwater beneath the site.
It also found the substances at levels above safe drinking water guidelines about eight kilometres downstream in the upper reaches of the Capertee River, within the Capertee National Park.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife has installed signage at the location, warning people not to use the water for drinking or cooking purposes.
But it advised the water was safe for swimming.
The EPA investigations concluded it had reason to believe the global chemicals maker was responsible for the contamination as it "tested large volume of AFFF on the land" for two decades.
3M Australia has been given 60 days to submit an investigation management plan or risk a maximum non-compliance penalty of $2 million.
"Though this is only the first step in what will likely be a complex and lengthy remediation process, 3M Australia has so far been cooperative — voluntarily offering to conduct investigations to better understand the extent and nature of legacy PFAS contamination at the site," Mr Gathercole said.
The chemicals are known to be pervasive in the environment and can take hundreds, if not thousands of years to break down.
Due to their heat, water and oil resistance qualities, they are found in everyday products such as non-stick pans and microwave popcorn bags.
A recent study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found three types of PFAS could be found in the blood of 85 per cent of the population.
In 2024, a US federal court approved a settlement that would result in 3M Company paying more than $US10 billion to assist America's public water suppliers remove the chemicals.
The chemicals maker has announced it would stop manufacturing PFAS by the end of 2025.
The ABC has contacted 3M for comment.
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