Last Friday CFA was issued with a Clean Up Notice from the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for our Penshurst Regional Training Campus.
CFA has worked closely with the EPA during the past three weeks as the statutory process of the issuing of a Clean Up Notice was being finalised. The Notice reflects the actions CFA has committed to undertaking. This additional and independent oversight provided by the EPA will provide increased confidence to our members and the local community at Penshurst that their local CFA training campus is safe.
As we have outlined earlier, work continues with EPA and other government and local authorities to assess the potential environmental impacts of historical fire fighting practices which saw the use of chemicals, in particular Perfluoroctane sulfonate (PFOS), at all of our training centres. As we have stated previously, both the environmental and health risks posed for people exposed to PFOS in the past are very low.
CFA takes the safety of our people very seriously, and we are fully supportive of the whole of government approach to support CFA in addressing possible environmental issues from historical fire fighting practices. We are committed to addressing any issues which are identified, and will continue to invest in our training facilities to make sure they are capable of meeting the standards of the future.
I again wish to clearly state that our training campuses are safe.
CFA anticipates that statutory Clean Up Notices for a number of other training campuses will be issued in coming weeks, and we will keep all of our members updated
on this issue.
During the next few months, regular updates highlighting key activities regarding Fiskville and our regional training centres will be provided. The CFA website will also be updated to provide our members and the broader community with the latest information.
In the meantime, if you require any further information please contact the Informing the Future Program via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Author: Michael Wootten