Latest news with #JonDee
Sydney Morning Herald
18-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Forever chemicals in water report leaves many unanswered questions
The dangers of 'forever chemicals', known as PFAS, have been known for more than a quarter of a century, yet NSW water authorities could not join the dots to protect our water supplies. We now know for certain that some Blue Mountains residents may have been drinking water with elevated levels of the cancer-causing chemical for up to 32 years. Further, authorities disconnected Medlow Dam and Greaves Creek Dam from the water supply only last August after initially claiming there were no 'no known PFAS hotspots in the catchment' in the wake of a damning Herald investigation. Yet concerns about PFAS in firefighting material were voiced in 1998. The world's scientific community has been waving red flags since, and stringent new drinking limits are under consideration in Australia. Now an initial report prepared for WaterNSW by engineering firm Jacobs Group confirmed that the contamination could have occurred as early as 1992 when a petrol tanker crashed on the Great Western Highway near Medlow Bath. The WaterNSW report also suggests a 2002 vehicle crash and the Medlow Bath Rural Fire Brigade Station could be potential sources of the contamination. Loading The findings back up the work of Carrie Fellner, our investigative journalist who has covered the impact of the chemicals for more than 12 years. In August 2024, she reported Sydney Water confirmed forever chemicals had been detected across drinking water supplies. A week or so later, Sydney Water quietly closed a feeder dam in the Blue Mountains. She revealed this month the chemicals had been discovered in the Jamieson Reservoir on Cousins Lane at Leura and the Shipley Reservoir, near Blackheath. Following the initial report, the EPA has recommended a detailed site investigation should be undertaken consistent with the National Environment Protection Measure 1999. While the disconnections remain, NSW Health and Sydney Water have said drinking water in the Blue Mountains meets existing Australian drinking water guidelines and is safe to drink. They give this assurance knowing full well that new drinking water standards are on the horizon that will not be so generous. Jon Dee, convener of the local STOP PFAS action group and a former Australian of the Year for his environmental work including co-founding Planet Ark in the 1990s, said the report left key questions unanswered. 'They still cannot tell us when the PFAS contamination of our drinking water began,' Dee said. 'They still cannot tell us how high the PFAS levels have been in the tap water that we've been drinking. They still can't tell us how long we've been drinking toxic tap water, and yet they insist that our tap water has been safe.'
Sydney Morning Herald
05-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cancer-linked chemical found at five times safe level in drinking water reservoir
Cancer-linked chemicals have been discovered at five times the incoming safe level in a reservoir used to top up the tap water supply in the upmarket tourist haven of Leura in the Blue Mountains. On Monday, Sydney Water confirmed to the Herald it had drained two drinking water reservoirs in recent weeks after discovering the so-called 'forever chemicals', also known as PFAS, at levels exceeding proposed new safety guidelines. However, the agency moved to reassure customers that drinking water from the reservoirs was 'rarely used', and when it did provide 'very limited supply', it was blended with water from elsewhere, meaning tap water samples were safe. Sydney Water only carried out widespread testing of its reservoirs across the Blue Mountains in April, following demands by community campaigner Jon Dee. The agency has known for nearly 12 months that the region is a contamination hotspot. Dee was shocked to discover on Monday that the testing he called for had taken place and the results had been quietly published on Sydney Water's website. Loading 'I've had to stumble on it myself, nobody has been told,' said Dee, who convenes the local STOP PFAS action group. Dee raised concerns with authorities in March that monitoring did not appear to have taken place in Sydney Water's distribution network, which pipes treated drinking water from filtration plants to a series of storage reservoirs and then onto homes. Dee said the levels in Leura reservoir were alarming and even higher than those that mobilised a multimillion-dollar government response at the nearby Cascade Water Filtration Plant last year.
Sydney Morning Herald
05-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Cancer-linked chemical found at nine times safe level in drinking water reservoir
Cancer-linked chemicals have been discovered at nine times the incoming safe level in a reservoir used to top up the tap water supply in the upmarket tourist haven of Leura in the Blue Mountains. On Monday, Sydney Water confirmed to the Herald it had drained two drinking water reservoirs in recent weeks after discovering the so-called 'forever chemicals', also known as PFAS, at levels exceeding proposed new safety guidelines. However, the agency moved to reassure customers that drinking water from the reservoirs was 'rarely used', and when it did provide 'very limited supply', it was blended with water from elsewhere, meaning tap water samples were safe. Sydney Water only carried out widespread testing of its reservoirs across the Blue Mountains in April, following demands by community campaigner Jon Dee. The agency has known for nearly 12 months that the region is a contamination hotspot. Dee was shocked to discover on Monday that the testing he called for had taken place and the results had been quietly published on Sydney Water's website. Loading 'I've had to stumble on it myself, nobody has been told,' said Dee, who convenes the local STOP PFAS action group. Dee raised concerns with authorities in March that monitoring did not appear to have taken place in Sydney Water's distribution network, which pipes treated drinking water from filtration plants to a series of storage reservoirs and then onto homes. Dee said the levels in Leura reservoir were alarming and even higher than those that mobilised a multimillion-dollar government response at the nearby Cascade Water Filtration Plant last year.
The Age
05-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
Cancer-linked chemical found at nine times safe level in drinking water reservoir
Cancer-linked chemicals have been discovered at nine times the incoming safe level in a reservoir used to top up the tap water supply in the upmarket tourist haven of Leura in the Blue Mountains. On Monday, Sydney Water confirmed to the Herald it had drained two drinking water reservoirs in recent weeks after discovering the so-called 'forever chemicals', also known as PFAS, at levels exceeding proposed new safety guidelines. However, the agency moved to reassure customers that drinking water from the reservoirs was 'rarely used', and when it did provide 'very limited supply', it was blended with water from elsewhere, meaning tap water samples were safe. Sydney Water only carried out widespread testing of its reservoirs across the Blue Mountains in April, following demands by community campaigner Jon Dee. The agency has known for nearly 12 months that the region is a contamination hotspot. Dee was shocked to discover on Monday that the testing he called for had taken place and the results had been quietly published on Sydney Water's website. Loading 'I've had to stumble on it myself, nobody has been told,' said Dee, who convenes the local STOP PFAS action group. Dee raised concerns with authorities in March that monitoring did not appear to have taken place in Sydney Water's distribution network, which pipes treated drinking water from filtration plants to a series of storage reservoirs and then onto homes. Dee said the levels in Leura reservoir were alarming and even higher than those that mobilised a multimillion-dollar government response at the nearby Cascade Water Filtration Plant last year.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Planet Ark was unable to stay afloat in a harsh environment
Planet Ark, known for environmental campaigns and programs including National Tree Day and National Recycling Week, has been unable to sustain itself. Regrettably, the organisation's collapse has raised questions about the shelf-life of the not-for-profit sector confronting Australia's waste crisis, while government is being increasingly pressured to regulate packaging. The board of Planet Ark Environmental Foundation took the decision to go into voluntary administration following a review of its finances and future viability. The impact of COVID-19 on stakeholder support, current economic climate and ongoing funding challenges gathered to adversely affect the organisation. Nevertheless, the ground has moved since Planet Ark started in 1992. It has shifted from a largely campaigning and educational role – promoting circular economy principles and encouraging better recycling behaviour – into partnering with corporations and organisations on packaging sustainability. And not without criticism: one of its founders, Jon Dee, severed ties in 2012 over its new directions, including links with the timber industry. Some of Planet Ark's work and campaigns have been ground-breaking. After battles in Australia between conservationists, vested interests and governments over wilderness and rainforests in the 1970s and 1980s, a grudging recognition of climate change and new attitudes to environmentalism saw a number of organisations established in the 1990s that promoted sustainability and community involvement. Meanwhile, waste developed into an existential issue as consumer societies boomed, and a throwaway culture spread rapidly across the world. Households and governments were left to shoulder the burden of recycling. When not-for-profit organisations like Planet Ark stepped into the breach, their work was not only practical but instrumental in raising new awareness. Loading It is now widely recognised that climate change, sustainability and recycling are not only interlinked, but everybody's problem. The Herald 's environment and climate editor Nick O'Malley today writes on politicians across the world turning away from bold climate action, while noting Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney was widely known for a 2015 speech to London financial institutions warning that climate change presented a real and overwhelming economic tragedy: 'Though its impacts would be most devastating to future generations, it could only be addressed by our own. This was the tragedy.' The work of the not-for-profit sector has been blunted by corporations driven by profit. The companies bore little responsibility for the fate of their products after they had been used by consumers, and governments have been loath to introduce more stringent controls. That may change – in Australia the industry has come around to the idea of a mandatory scheme and the federal government has been consulting on the issue and plans to consider a preferred model for reformed packaging regulation.
