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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1117 asked in the Legislative Council on 26 September 2019 by Hon Dr Steve Thomas

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

FORRESTFIELD–AIRPORT LINK — SOIL CONTAMINATION

1117. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the Minister for Transport:

I refer to PFAS-contaminated soil excavated from the Forrestfield–Airport Link project.

(1) Is the Airport Central station excavation a component of the FAL project?

(2) Can the minister confirm that 100 000 cubic metres of spoil from the Airport Central station excavation is currently being stored on the Perth Airport estate?

(3) Is the Public Transport Authority, Perth Airport Corporation, or the FAL main works contractor responsible for the spoil excavated from the Airport Central station?

(4) If none of those listed in part (3) are responsible, who is?

(5) What is the total amount of spoil that has now been excavated from the FAL project?

(6) What amount of the total amount of spoil contains measurable levels of PFAS?

Hon Tjorn Sibma: Great question!

The PRESIDENT: It was a long question, I might add.

Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by the Minister for Transport.

(1)–(2) Yes.

(3) The legal producer of the material is the state through the Public Transport Authority.

(4) Not applicable.

(5) It is 815 000 cubic metres.

(6) PFAS are ubiquitous and can be found at low levels in soils, surface water and groundwater in most urban areas in Western Australia and nationally. Although soil from all project excavation locations has been tested for PFAS, and detectable levels have been found in some samples, the highest soil readings measured are low and comparable with the low levels present in most urban areas around the world, including in Australia. The soil is capable of re-use in accordance with the PFAS national environmental management plan.