The recent controversy around Sunshine Coast Council’s decision to pump Per-and polyfluorinated alkyl (PFAS) contaminated water out to sea, along with the release of water from other affected sites across Australia, raises a much bigger question about pollution of our land and water in general.
While it is necessary to question where this water should go, it also must be asked where the PFAS is coming from in the first place?
PFAS is a major constituent of the firefighting foams that have been in use in Australia since the 1950s. The need to train personnel in firefighting techniques has resulted in contamination of some sites. These include areas where bores used for drinking water have been found to contain detectable levels of PFAS.
There is a PFAS National Environmental Management Plan (NEMP) which is currently being revised and has entered a consultation phase. One of the concerning statements in the revised draft states:
“Attention should be given to the range of products that can cause PFAS contamination of samples, including new clothing, footwear, PPE and treated fabrics, stain and water resistant products, sunscreen, moisturisers, cosmetics, fast food wrappers, Teflon©, sampling containers with Teflon©-lined lids, foil, glazed ceramics, stickers and labels, inks, sticky notes, waterproof papers, drilling fluids, decontamination solutions and reusable freezer blocks.
“These should not be worn or used during any stage of sampling (at site, during transport etc.) where sample contamination could affect analytical results.”
Although these words are about the importance of good sampling protocols, they also tell us how our clothing and everyday household items contribute to PFAS contamination.
That plush sofa that is so easy to wipe clean and the egg that slides off the non-stick pan – the convenience and ease are thanks to PFAS. It’s also used in greaseproof packaging like popcorn bags and pizza boxes.
For most people, the main exposure pathway for PFAS is through ingestion. And if we ingest it, we also excrete it – which passes the problem to the service providers tasked with cleaning our wastewater.
In Australia PFAS has been detected in low concentrations in wastewater influent and effluent, in biosolids and in the leachate from landfill sites. The source of PFAS is more enigmatic but is most likely from products disposed to landfill, PFAS-contaminated trade waste (liquid and solid) and its dispersion into wastewater through normal household cleaning and washing.
Wastewater treatment processes only provide partial removal of some water soluble PFAS. It is also recognised that wastewater treatment breaks down PFAS precursor chemicals to produce PFOA, so wastewater treatment processes can appear to increase the total amount of PFAS in effluent compared with an influent stream.
But PFAS is just one of thousands if not millions of contaminants flushing through our water networks – including microplastics from our clothing. The biggest likely source of microplastics in coastal waters off the USA seems to be from tiny threads coming off car tyres which wash into stormwater drains and ultimately out to sea.
We have been using our rivers, creeks and drains as waste disposal facilities.
The amount of chemicals going down our drains are overwhelming and constantly changing. Ban one substance and a similar one may pop up harbouring even more dangerous chemicals. How do we tame such a beast? Where do we even start?
And spare a thought for the water service providers at the receiving end of a problem that they didn’t create, yet are expected to fix – often with minimal funding and resources. They get the blame and are governed by increasing regulation, yet the tap that pours this problem down our drains day in and day out is never turned off. We’re not even reducing the flow.
So what do we, as citizens, do about it?
It’s easy to play the blame game, but in a way this is a problem we have collectively created and it’s going to need a massive collective effort to fix.
We need to be more aware of the toxins we pour down our drains each and every day and reduce our impact by being more informed consumers. Just as we do with our garbage, follow the mantra: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Whether you have a small back yard garden or you own a farm, know that whatever you spray on your plants or crops will inevitably end up in our waterways and in the ocean. A recent article by The Guardian reported on a study documenting more than 50 individual pesticide residues detected in Great Barrier Reef waterways, with the highest concentrations being in freshwater areas adjacent to areas of intensive cropping.
We need to conserve more and pollute less – watch this great TED talk by Sonaar Luthra advocating for a global weather service for water that can forecast water shortages and risks through a global data collection effort, just like we monitor the movement of storms.
In an era of water scarcity, water should be judged by its quality, not its history. While we have the technology to treat most contaminated water to excellent water quality standards, it costs money and uses a lot of energy.
Unfortunately water infrastructure is largely hidden underground and not nearly as sexy as a beautiful boardwalk or an expensive playground, but it’s a hell of a lot more important.
As residents and as business owners who rely on water each and every day, we need to ask the hard questions – like whether our community can capture stormwater or fund small scale, fit-for-purpose recycling facilities.
But most importantly, ask government and other authorities what they are doing to prevent contamination of our waterways in the first place – because prevention is always better than cure!
Disclosure: The author works in the water industry. This is her personal opinion.
