A further incident of a near miss at Gold Coast Airport (GCA) to add to others in recent times must not be ignored.
The troubling evidence about the safety of some budget Asian carriers was revealed by the ABC TV’s Foreign Correspondent in May this year. Indeed countries around the world will not allow entry to these carriers.
It is time that our governments stopped acting only in the interests of a private company and its shareholders and time to give consideration to the human communities and environment in the Tweed-Gold Coast area.
The GCA’s publicly exhibited ILS Major Development Plan (MDP) did not disclose perfluorinated chemicals (PFC) as the contaminant of land on the site. The approved MDP makes no disclosure the groundwater is also contaminated with PFCs.
This is despite an assessment in 2008 confirming the PFC contamination of soil, sediment and groundwater on the site but was withheld from the ILS approval process.
Contrary to claims regulators were notified of the PFC contamination 2010 and regular updates continue to be provided it has now come to light they had in fact not been notified and indeed 10 days ago NSW EPA still had not been provided relevant information including the 2008 assessment despite a number of requests.
While the Project Lift MDP did disclose the PFC contamination of soil and water on site it then dismissed it claiming it was well outside the proposed development areas. But both projects have failed to disclose the second area on the site where fire-fighting foams with PFC chemicals were used on the east of the runway near Coolangatta Creek.
How is it that a government agency and private company can operate as such a law to itself in Australia 2016 when the average citizens of our nation are required to abide by laws and regulations?
Further, the ILS approval has secured a development footprint to increase the operational length of the runway with absolutely no disclosure.
That there has been a government agency, departments and politicians party to the complete failure of process as required under Commonwealth regulations rings very loud alarm bells and an urgent far reaching investigation is warranted immediately.
(The above report was sourced through a parliamentary FOI. A request to ASA was refused. Pg. 18/19/20/24/25/26/37/40/42/45 are of particular note on my very brief review. Pg.25/26/37 and fig.3 is of significance.
The levels of PFOS contamination of groundwater are very high. I sought Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith’s interpretation of these levels which she was surprised at the high levels.
GCA did not disclose for this study that the fire-fighting foam was also used on the east of the runway alongside Coolangatta Creek.
As with other sites around Australia it is the groundwater that is most impacted by the PFC contaminants which has had a devastating impact on communities.)
Lindy Smith, Tweed Heads
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