Leading scientist says PFAS contaminated water should be replaced for CQ cattle

Former AgForce president Larry Acton is in the unenviable position of having bought a property near Biloela in April 2021 where the bore water, shortly after the sale was finalised, tested positive to the toxic chemical, PFAS.

The PFAS is alleged to have leached into the underground aquifer from settling ponds at the nearby Callide Power Station where they used PFAS fire fighting foam, a substance which was also used at Australia's defence bases and has subsequently been banned because of its toxicity.

CS Energy, which manages the Callide Power Station, has given Mr Acton clean drinking water for his house and garden, but has refused to supply clean drinking water for his cattle.

Currently, Mr Acton is only running about 40 head of cattle on his property instead of a possible 120 because of the contaminated water issue.

EPA Victoria's chief environmental scientist Professor Mark Taylor, who is also an honorary professor at Macquarie University, said recommendations had been made for communities impacted by PFAS in Victoria that they were given help to manage PFAS contamination in soil and water.

"You can eliminate the PFAS from cattle by undertaking particular strategies to take them off the affected land, to take them off the affected water before they go to market," he said.

"If his (Mr Acton's) cattle have been ingesting PFAS contaminated water the cattle themselves will have elevated levels of PFAS in them and in their blood. That's inevitable.

"We know that ingestion is the greatest route of exposure to most, if not nearly all chemicals, and so by removing the source of the contamination, by giving them clean fresh drinking water that will help eliminate and reduce PFAS levels in the cattle."

Professor Taylor said it was not unreasonable for Mr Acton to ask for clean water for his cattle and was a way of managing the contamination.

Mr Acton said he needed either a bigger filtration plant than what CS Energy had already supplied or an alternate water source.

"There is enough evidence now that clean water can reduce PFAS in animals over time...surely there's enough evidence now that we are entitled to clean water for our cattle," he said.

Mr Acton said authorities needed to come up with a position that required companies such as CS Energy to provide clean water for animals and cropping where there was PFAS contamination of underground aquifer or overground flows from their sites.

He said CS Energy would argue at the moment that the levels of PFAS in his bore water were dropping.

"But that's not the issue, the issue is that our animals at the moment are drinking contaminated water," he said.

"The levels (of PFAS in the water) are unacceptable to me because it's actually right on the acceptable level for human consumption here in Australia, but if you compare that with the levels that they have set in America, we are almost 100 times more than levels in America.

"So, if they're trying to provide clean water in America, surely we have to do the same here."

A CS Energy spokesperson said the health of the community and its employees continued to be CS Energy's first priority as it managed the impact of the legacy use of PFAS at Callide Power Station.

"We will continue to speak to individual landholders about their needs," the spokesperson said.

"As a Queensland based business, CS Energy takes our advice on appropriate PFAS levels for drinking/domestic water from Queensland Health and for stock/crops from the Queensland department of agriculture and fisheries."

The CS Energy spokesperson said advice from the department of agriculture and fisheries was that landholders could continue to use the bore water for irrigating crops and for livestock.

"DAF advises there is no evidence to suggest PFAS has a detrimental effect on stock or plant health at levels likely to be found in contaminated areas. They also advise us that there are currently no restrictions in place in Queensland on the sale or movement of plant or animal products produced in areas affected by PFAS contamination," the spokesperson said.