The States has heard that contaminated soil buried around Guernsey Airport should finally be removed next year.
Deputy David de Lisle asked the President of the States Trading Supervisory Board about the matter this morning, having previously raised concerns repeatedly about the toxic soil being buried there.
“There continue to be ongoing environmental and health concerns from residents over the contaminated PFOS soils stored so near to their homes for over a decade,” he said.
“I understand the preferred solution involves off island soil washing and subsequent containment in an off island hazardous waste landfill site.”
Deputy Peter Roffey acknowledged the concerns and said that the contract for the removal of the soil within the bund is currently out tender.
“Guernsey Ports anticipates appointing a preferred contractor this year, and the soil being removed in 2026.
“In the meantime, the bund site continues to be licensed by the Office of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation.
Around 7,000 cubic metres of soil contaminated by the use of fire fighting foam is buried in bunds around the perimeter of Guernsey Airport.
It’s been there for more than a decade.
The STSB President also confirmed that soil washing and off-island containment remains the preferred solution for the toxic ground when it is eventually removed.
Deputy Roffey said essentially it will be removed as soon as possible once the contract is agreed.
“The reason I gave for thinking the soil probably won’t be removed until next year, we’ll have to appoint the contractor first and liaise with them, but because it involves moving the soil, we believe they probably prefer to do it during the drier months rather than the wetter winter months. But if that proves not to be the case, we’ll accelerate the program.”
Deputy John Gollop asked for clarity around the safety of Guernsey’s water supplies, and protecting it against contamination from chemicals such as PFOS and PFAS.
Deputy Roffey said that preventing any contamination is “of course” a requirement within the tender process.
“Yes, of course, we’re going to try and appoint an expert contractor who will try to absolutely guard against any pollution of the water courses due to the removal of the soil.
“However, his wider point, I think we are, or Guernsey Water is, going to need to invest in quite expensive treatment capacity, for treatment systems, for PFAS, because I think as international standards become rightly, forever stricter, we will probably absolutely need to do that.”