Upcoming changes to PFAS regulations and guidance (and should I be buying shares in waste management companies?)
Upcoming changes to PFAS regulations and guidance (and should I be buying shares in waste management companies?)
- Changes for PFAS are imminent including PFAS NEMP v3.0 (may have already landed), biosolids, drinking water, industrial chemicals management, recreational water (and with aquatic eco guidelines still lurking in the wings)
- These changes will impact management for contaminated land, drinking water, wastewater and biosolids, landfill acceptance, and PFAS risk assessment more broadly
- Some of the proposed guidance conflicts with existing guidance, creating massive uncertainty for problem owners and government alike
- Karl will read the tea leaves and give you a sense of what’s coming
Dr Karl Bowles is a Senior Principal Environmental Scientist with Jacobs and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, QAEHS. He has over 30 years of experience providing technical advice on the fate, transport, impacts and risks for a wide range of chemical contaminants. Karl has worked intensively on PFAS for 10 years, during which he has provided strategic advice for managing environmental PFAS impacts to government and industry. Key achievements include setting up a PFAS risk assessment capability for a state government and contributing substantively to guidance in the inaugural Australian PFAS National Environmental Management Plan. Karl has been a consultant to the Australian Defence PFAS Investigation and Management Branch for over 6 years, advising, developing technical policy, and steering the Defence-CSIRO Collaborative PFAS Research Program. Karl is a co-author on about 20 research papers on PFAS ranging from aquatic bioaccumulation to PFAS sampling and analysis to approaches for managing PFAS impacted soil and concrete. Karl is on the IChEMS board advising the Commonwealth Government on scheduling of industrial chemicals.