Water utilities are likely to expand trade waste testing for PFAS, Qenos is under EPA orders to investigate PFAS contamination, and a government institute will next month brief site managers on testing procedures for the compounds.
The Department of Environment and Energy has established a new section to develop strategies on contaminants used in firefighting foams and to consider controlling their use via an international treaty.
No one is sure whether state agencies can order Defence to take action over off-site contamination and, as class action lawyers circle, federal lawyers are trying to come up with an answer, a Senate inquiry has heard.
Caltex Australia has pleaded guilty in the NSW Land and Environment Court to a Tier 1 offence carrying a $2 million maximum penalty in relation to a fuel spill at its Banksmeadow terminal in Sydney.
Hydraulic fracking for oil and gas has the potential to affect drinking water but in America there are few cases where this is known to have occurred, according to a major draft study by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The NSW EPA has withdrawn an allegation of land pollution by Du Pont, after a court accepted company arguments that any off-site escape of herbicide from its Sydney factory might have occurred outside the 'charge period'.
The temporary shut-down of Orica's Kooragang Island plant after a hexavalent chromium discharge cost the company $90m, according to half-year results issued today, which also reveal it has provided $190m for various clean-up and environmental projects.