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The Government has a “moral responsibility and… liability” to ensure islanders whose water has been polluted by a chemical previously used at the airport can be connected to the mains supply for free, according to the Deputy Chief Minister.
Senator Lyndon Farnham said yesterday that he believed that this had already been suggested around 20 years ago, but action to make it happen had been "inconsistent".
Standing in for the Chief Minister, who currently has covid, Senator Farnham made the comments in the States Assembly on the day that the Government announced the launch of a blood testing programme for those who lived or worked in areas of known contamination.
The samples will be sent to a laboratory in California, where they will be tested for a range of PFAS – a family of carbon-based chemicals that have been linked to cancer, reduced immunity and fertility, birth defects and thyroid problems.
Exceptionally difficult to break down, those in the PFAS group are known as ‘forever chemicals’.
One of that family, called PFOS, was an ingredient of fire-fighting foam sprayed at the Airport until the early 90s when it was banned.
High concentrations of PFOS have been found in St. Ouen’s Bay and the Pont Marquet area of St. Brelade’s, where water from the Airport drains, although traces of PFAS is present in all drinking water in Jersey.
Pictured: Senator Lyndon Farnham was questioned by the Constable of St. Peter, Richard Vibert.
On Tuesday morning, the Constable of St. Peter, Richard Vibert asked Senator Farnham whether he agreed that islanders whose water remain polluted by PFOS should not have to pay to be connected to the mains water supply, which the Senator said he “absolutely” did.
“I believe the States, and the Government, and the Ports of Jersey have a moral responsibility, and indeed carry a moral liability, to ensure that this status quo can be maintained for people who were affected by the pollution of their land and their water supply,” he continued.
“I think the Government wouldn’t be acting responsibly, were it not to follow that up.”
He acknowledged the PFOS pollution was “still a great cause of concern” for many residents of the area and said the blood tests and further support from the Government would help “ascertain” the impact it has had on people’s health and “act accordingly”.
Constable Vibert asked the Minister whether he believed it was acceptable the matter hadn’t been resolved since the late 80s and early 90s, given it was “very clear that the States of Jersey had accepted full responsibility at the time”.
After trying to “cast his mind back” to his time on the airports committee – he was Vice President of the Harbours and Airport Committee during his time as Deputy for St. Saviour between 1999 and 2005 - the Senator described the actions taken since then as “inconsistent”.
“The actions out of those decisions made in those days seem to have been inconsistent,” he said. “What I understand is that compensation in the way of free water supply was provided but that has been inconsistent and I think we need to put this back on a consistent footing to ensure that those people who are affected are not worse off than they were before we became aware of the pollution all those years ago.”
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