Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) is reminding members of the community, industry and business with an interest in per-and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) that they can watch a live stream of tomorrow's PFAS Summit.
EPA Executive Director of Knowledge Standards and Assessment, Tim Eaton said people could watch the summit’s keynote speeches on EPA Victoria’s website at www.epa.vic.gov.au/pfas from 9am–12.30pm (AEST).
The keynote speakers include:
- Dr Éva Fetter from the German Environment Agency
- Hilary Thornton from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and
- Timothy Dee, a PFAS specialist from Aurecon New Zealand Ltd.
Further information about the speakers is available on EPA’s website.
The rest of the summit will consist of a series of workshops involving technical experts in the environmental and health regulation of PFAS from Australian and international jurisdictions.
Mr Eaton said EPA was leading the development of a nationally-consistent approach to the environmental regulation of PFAS and hosting the summit on behalf of its co-regulators.
“EPA is coordinating the summit on behalf of the Heads of EPAs Australia and New Zealand (HEPA) and the Australian Government Department of Environment and Energy. We will be providing advice to HEPA on what a PFAS National Management Plan could contain,” Mr Eaton said.
“Such a plan would help provide national consistency on how to ensure good environmental practices are applied to all PFAS contaminated sites across Australia,” he said.
“PFAS are of emerging global concern because they are persistent in the environment and resistant to normal environmental breakdown. A nationally-consistent approach to regulation will increase certainty for government, community and industry.”
Options for further stakeholder involvement will be considered by Australian environmental regulators following the summit.