“THE TURNBULL government has been called on to intervene in a sewage saga that has run into its fourth year, cost taxpayers $7.5 million for an unused pipe and left a bad taste in the mouths of Williamtown residents.
Defence admitted this week that the Williamtown RAAF base is still not connected to the region’s sewerage network, with no end in sight to what appears to have become a war of attrition with Hunter Water.
When the Newcastle Herald revealed the dispute in January, 2016, Defence rubbished suggestions the parties were at an impasse and said the matter would be resolved within a month.
But two years later, Hunter Water claims Defence is still refusing to sign a standard trade waste agreement setting limits on the amount of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl [PFAS] chemicals it discharges into the sewer.
It means the base’s sewage – containing the toxic firefighting chemicals – continues to pool in unlined ponds on a neighbouring private property, with nothing to stop the toxins seeping into the Tomago Sandbeds aquifer during heavy rain.”
Rad the full article by Carrie Fellner.