In a small remote town in the outback, a multi-million-dollar mega facility shipped in from America will soon turn potentially toxic drinking water into some of the cleanest in Australia.
Between 1988 and 2004, during firefighting training at the Tindal RAAF Base, PFAS leached into the Katherine River and spread kilometres through the highly connected aquifer below.
The government advised against eating fish caught from the river, the local swimming pool was closed, bore-reliant properties surrounding the base were delivered bottled water by Defence and residents lined up for blood tests.
Senior project manager at Power and Water Corporation Liam Early said the new facility would deliver “very high-quality water,” and agreed it would likely be the first of many needed across Australia as the nation began to grapple with the enormity of PFAS contamination.