PFAS—Dardanup and Forrestfield
138. Hon Dr Steve Thomas to the Minister for the Environment:
I refer to the approval granted recently by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to the operators of a South West landfill site to accept per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS.
(1) What is the maximum concentration of PFAS in waste that will be able to be accepted by the Dardanup site?
(2) What is the maximum concentration of the component chemicals of PFAS that can be accepted by the site?
(3) What is the concentration of PFAS in soil extracted from the Forrestfield–Airport Link project and stockpiled by the government at 777 Abernethy Road, Forrestfield?
(4) How long can the government store Forrestfield–Airport Link soil on the temporary sites before it is considered a waste?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn replied:
I thank the member for some notice of the question. I am not sure I will thank him for all the words that I am going to mispronounce, but I will give it my best shot.
(1)–(2) The amended licence for Cleanaway Solid Waste Pty Ltd’s Banksia Road putrescible landfill in Dardanup sets the following maximum concentrations for special waste type 3, which is solid waste impacted by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. For the sum of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorohexane sulfonate, the concentration limit is 50 milligrams per kilogram and the leachable concentration is 0.7 micrograms per litre. For perfluorooctanoic acid, the concentration limit is 50 milligrams per kilogram and the leachable concentration is 5.6 micrograms per litre. Waste must meet both the concentration limit and the leachable concentration. The specified maximum concentrations are those recommended in the 2025 PFAS National Environmental Management Plan 3.0.(3) The concentrations of PFAS in the soil are below the human health and ecological assessment criteria in the national environmental management plan. The most commonly detected PFAS compound in the Forrestfield–Airport Link project’s excess fill is perfluorooctane sulfonate, of which the highest concentration measured has been 0.007 milligrams per kilogram.(4) The Public Transport Authority has advised that it does not consider the material to be waste. As set out in the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation’s Fact sheet—Assessing whether material is waste, it is the responsibility of the person in possession of material to determine whether it is waste or not.