Firefighting foam investigations spread to Auckland

Investigations into toxic firefighting foam contamination have spread to a new 1600-home development in northwest Auckland, and to Devonport and Whenuapai.
The state-owned company doing the building on the former Air Force base at Hobsonville Point still does not know if the Defence Force used the now-banned foam there, 10 weeks after the military confirmed it had contaminated the water around bases at Ohakea in Manawatu and Woodbourne in Marlborough.
However, the groundwater has not so far been tested under these bases – even though it is the groundwater that has spread foam contamination into drinking water outside Air Force bases at Ohakea and Woodbourne.
It is not so far doing testing at its Wigram base, saying this base, like Hobsonville Point, is connected to the town water supply.
Hobsonville Point was last used by the Air Force around 2011.
Yet Mr Aiken said he had had no formal contact from Defence.
It was only last Thursday that he heard about the foam issue in a media report, he said, then immediately asked his team to begin checking all their previous environmental reports.
But he does not know if any tests specifically targeted to detect the foam chemicals in water or soil were ever done at the 170 hectare site.
The Auckland Council was advised by consultants in mid-2016 that firefighting foam should be included as a potential contaminant at Whenuapai, which is 4 kilometres from Hobsonville Point.
The New Zealand Cabinet paper says officials here will study it.

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