Experts have warned that people in regional New South Wales are vulnerable to PFAS contamination in their water supplies. The chemical has been used in a range of products. From non-stick cookware to making clothes and carpets stain resistant. But its use in fire-fighting foam has been focus of day one of a parliamentary inquiry.
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00:00Protecting water and people from cancer-linked chemicals, the state's Environment Protection
00:08Authority today admitting is a big task.
00:11It concerns us because it has those three characteristics about being persistent, bioaccumulates
00:18and has toxicity to it.
00:19It was recently found in Blue Mountain's drinking water.
00:23Despite numerous assurances, there were no concerns in Sydney's catchment.
00:27The suspected source of contamination, firefighting foam used back in 1992.
00:34What I would suggest is it shows up where we don't think it's going to show up and
00:37that is a problem.
00:38Fire and Rescue told the inquiry it identified 600 potentially contaminated sites.
00:44A lot of those fire stations are in residential areas, they are in areas that now have daycares
00:51and schools next to them.
00:52The committee also heard that the EPA has known about contamination of some waterways
00:58since 2016.
00:59The government has known, or maybe they didn't want to know.
01:04Because once they start testing water and they test it often, they're going to realise
01:08they've got a big problem on their hands.
01:11New South Wales Health has offered all regional suppliers one-off tests for drinking water
01:16but ignored the ABC when we requested the results.
01:19Out of the 89 local water utilities, more than 30 did not respond or did not supply
01:25us with the results.
01:26After publishing a story today, New South Wales Health told us it will write to all
01:31suppliers urging them to make the information public.
01:35The PFAS inquiry will continue next year.