Higher standards are being developed to protect drinking water from Pfas, known as ‘forever chemicals’, which are used in thousands of products but accumulate in the human body and have been linked to a range of serious diseases.
Guernsey Water had already said it was working towards meeting the new standards by the end of the decade.
States Trading Supervisory Board president Peter Roffey told the Assembly yesterday that this would come with a large price tag.
‘This is an area where globally, led by the United States and other countries, regulators are tightening up and we will ensure we meet all the best UK and European standards in preventing contamination of drinking water,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘There needs to be a distinction between ground water and drinking water. With ground water, one of the possibilities is simply not to collect it and therefore it wouldn’t get into drinking water, but given drought management issues that is probably not the best way to go about things, so I know Guernsey Water has planned investment in very expensive treatment processes in order to address exactly this issue.’
One source of Pfas found in water and soil locally was an ingredient, known as Pfos, contained in firefighting foam used at Guernsey and Alderney airports from the 1970s until the early 2000s.
Some 13,000 tonnes of material containing Pfos have been stored in bunds near the main car park at Guernsey Airport since 2012. Approximately 3,000 tonnes of similarly contaminated material was added in 2015.
Deputy David De Lisle said that residents living nearby had ‘ongoing environmental and health concerns’ about the storage facility and asked for an update on plans to export the contaminated soil to an off-island landfill site specialising in hazardous waste.
‘The contract for the removal of the soil within the bund is currently out to tender,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘[STSB] anticipates appointing a preferred contractor this year and the soil will be removed in 2026. In the meantime, the bund site continues to be licensed by the Office of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation.’
The board had planned to invite tenders more than two years ago but the work was delayed when the Policy & Resources Committee ordered a re-evaluation of all States capital projects.
There is a chance that the work could be carried out sooner than the current timeline indicates.
‘The reason I gave for thinking the soil would not be removed until next year is because we believe the contractor would probably prefer to do it during the drier months than the wetter months, but if that proves not to be the case we’ll accelerate the programme,’ said Deputy Roffey.
The soil is sealed inside an impermeable barrier which has a 25-year life and was designed to prevent water getting in or out.
The invitation to tender for the work has been broken down into two parts.
‘The part for eventual storage in a contaminated waste site in the UK is not really going to be open to a local contractor, but with the other part, which is transportation from here to there in a safe way, my understanding is that it will be open to local and non-local contractors to put in bids,’ said Deputy Roffey.
Guernsey Water carried out nearly 7,500 tests last year and assessed them against UK water supply standards. 99.95% complied with these standards and 100% compliance was achieved with Pfas standards in drinking water.
But Deputy De Lisle, who has campaigned for tougher environmental standards since entering the States, said that contamination from firefighting foam was ‘never resolved satisfactorily’ and that the island had ‘still not had a comprehensive clear up’.
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