[Peetwo]

Bangs and bucks.

I can’t believe any government wants to be responsible the ‘One-Sky’ project currently being considered, if it is to be run by the incompetents currently running ASA.  The track record – to date – clearly and unequivocally demonstrates a lack of judgement, modesty and expertise.  The need for ‘consultants’ at a million a pop says it all.  The current crop of Muppets and Wombills are PAID at ‘expert’ level, to run an essential monopoly, which still manages to loose money, yet at every turn outside experts must be hired.  

One Sky is a multi billion dollar project – it needs expensive professional, private industry expertise.  Why not privatise ASA?  Canada did and Oh boy, did that work out as a win-win. Why persist with this publically funded fantasy that ASA can get it done? Do we need it all; or, could the money be better spent?  Hells bells, they have trouble keeping track of credit card rip offs and the tea money.  

One Sky needs professional help, government needs the dollars and there will, be absolutely certain of it, be big blow out costs.  So why take the chance – flog off ASA a.s.a.p. enjoy the benefits; it’s much better and safer than to field more and evermore awkward questions directed to the minister at Estimates.  The RAAT committee will tear DDD Darren apart; if he don’t break his leg while dancing (mincing) with the Stars.

Arrgghh. Toot toot.....

From off the Senate Estimates, yet another reason why ASA is fast becoming a liability and therefore prime for privatisation.. :

Defence & ASA attempted O&O of PFOS/PFOA contamination issue?

Back to the inquiry, I note that Keith Campbell (Bankstown fame) has recently made a submission - 126 Mr Keith Campbell    -  (PDF 13220 KB) :

 

Defence ignoring Qld toxic water: Xenophon
AAP on May 29, 2016, 6:59 pm

Senator Nick Xenophon has called on Defence to stop ignoring Oakey's "toxic water nightmare".

Independent senator Nick Xenophon has taken his campaign into the southern Queensland seat of Groom, calling for Defence to stop ignoring Oakey's "toxic water nightmare".

7 News can reveal a cancer causing toxin is leaching into groundwater at Adelaide Airport. http://www.7news.com.au 

http://snpy.tv/1TMQg5t 

7 News | Adelaide airport
7 News - 7 News | 6pm nightly

  

Update 05/06/16 courtesy SMH:

Potentially cancer-causing contaminant PFOS found at Sydney Airport

Date June 5, 2016

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Michael McGowan

Two men fishing at Botany Bay as planes come into land and prepare to take off at Sydney Airport. Photo: Kate Geraghty

A potentially cancer-causing chemical that led to bans on commercial fishing and depressed housing values when it was discovered north of Newcastle has been found at dozens of sites across Sydney, including Sydney Airport and the Richmond RAAF Base.

A report commissioned by the Baird government has revealed that legacy contamination from perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid exists at sites across Sydney.
Also known as PFOS and PFOA, the toxic perfluorinated compounds were used for decades in firefighting foams and household products like non-stick pans.

Aerial view of the area surrounding Sydney Airport, in Mascot. Photo: Google Maps.

Prepared by Mark Taylor of Macquarie University, the report says that Airservices Australia, a Commonwealth body responsible for airport firefighting, has told the NSW EPA of "issues" surrounding the historical use of the foams at Sydney and Bankstown airports.


It revealed that Airservices Australia wrote to the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage as early as 2011 to advise it that "preliminary results of a contamination and risk assessment investigation at current and former fire training ground sites at Sydney Airport" had found "contamination" from the chemicals "in on-site soils and groundwater" and "aquatic fauna".

"PFOS and PFOA were also found in water and sediments in waterways adjacent to current and former fire training ground sites," Professor Taylor's report states.

It has prompted a call for a wider study into the spread of the chemicals throughout the Sydney basin.

Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a senior advisor with the National Toxics Network, said it was "certainly likely" that it would have spread to locations throughout Sydney.

"The government should be funding PFOS and PFOA exposure studies, particularly in major cities," she said. "At a place like [the Airport] we simply do not know how it has spread."

Sydney Airport is bordered by the Cooks River and Botany Bay. A legacy of industrial contamination in the area means the use of groundwater from much of the Botany aquifer is banned.

Dr Rob Weaver, the general manager of safety at Airservices Australia, told a Senate hearing in April that tests of ground and surface water outside of Sydney Airport did not find "likely significant human health risks".

"What we find is that, where we go and test on-airport, off our sites, the soil is broadly below US residential levels," Dr Weaver said.

"We know PFCs are in the environment [and] we know that we have them in our blood.

"What we find around airports is that the levels are generally below the US EPA levels for residential soil."

However, those levels are based on interim short-term exposure standards that were significantly lowered in a long-awaited decision by the US EPA in May, and Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said they needed to be updated "as a matter of course".

"If a level of uncertainty exists with a contaminant, that's a reason to act," she said.

"It's certainly concerning, we've already seen in the communities that have been affected by this contamination they've really been devastated."

Professor Taylor's report also found that studies had discovered PFOS and PFOA contamination in a number of Sydney waterways.

At Richmond, where Defence has known about contamination from the base since at least 2013, the contaminants have been found in the Hawkesbury River, as well as in the Georges River near a former Defence site at Moorebank.

Air Vice-Marshal Greg Evans, Defence's national spokesman on PFOS and PFOA, said he could "only predict that there probably will be some [contamination at Richmond] because foam firefighting practices were conducted there".

A 2011 study also found PFOS and PFOA in water, soil and animals in Homebush Bay and the Parramatta River estuary, but the authors concluded that low concentrations measured in mussels and oysters would not pose a risk to humans, and NSW Fire and Rescue has previously used foam containing the contaminants at its training college in Alexandria.

PFOS and PFOA contamination has become an increasingly widespread issue after it was revealed to have leached into surface and ground water at homes surrounding the Williamtown RAAF Base near Newcastle last year.

Since then, commercial fishing has been closed in two major waterways, and banks have restricted lending on properties within the contamination "red zone" surrounding the base.

The crisis prompted a Senate inquiry that recommended Defence compensate home owners, and forced Defence to launch a nation-wide investigation of the contamination at 18 Defence sites, including Richmond.

The health impacts of the two contaminants remain an issue of debate globally.

Studies have found links between PFOS and PFOA and a number of diseases, including thyroid disorders and kidney and testicular cancer, and the US EPA says the "weight of evidence" from human studies "supports the conclusion that exposure to the chemicals was a human health hazard".

However, Assistant Defence Minister Michael McCormack has repeatedly stated there are "no links" between the contaminants and health risks.

On Saturday, the Labor Party announced it would fund 10,000 voluntary blood tests for residents living in areas affected by the contamination, an issue on contention in Williamtown where NSW Health and Defence have refused make them available.

Shadow Defence Minister Stephen Conroy said he was "absolutely shocked" that Mr McCormack "has gone around this country saying there is nothing to worry about, there is no issue here".

"If his family was in one of these red zones, he wouldn't be saying that." 

 Harfwit....tick..tick..tick