Fiskville - Terms of Reference

1.    The role of the Chair is to investigate and provide an independent report to the Board and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CFA.  The investigation and subsequent report is to:

(a)    examine and consider the historical facts relating to the nature, acquisition and use of liquids, gases or solids (with particular emphasis on flammable substances and extinguishing agents, including but not limited to water, foam and dry powders) for live firefighting training at Fiskville.  In doing so, the report is to set out a chronology of events, reports and documents about the management of the site at Fiskville, along with a listing of the identified flammable substances and extinguishing agents;

(b)    identify and list any documents or reports that contain comments on or recommendations about the use and disposal of flammable substances and extinguishing agents used for live firefighting training at Fiskville and on the management of fire water generated in such training; to the extent that it can be determined, report on how effectively each comment or recommendation was acted upon; and, where no action was taken, comment on the reasons for and implications of such lack of action;

(c)    identify the origins of the flammable substances (paying particular attention to the likelihood of the substances being contaminated with material such as heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, e.g. polychlorinated biphenyls); report on how they were stored, used and disposed of; and assess the likelihood of the use and management of flammable substances and extinguishing agents having led to the contamination of air, land or groundwater at, under or beyond the Fiskville facility;

(d)    identify the nature and extent of exposure to the flammable substances (and their combustion products),extinguishing agents and fire water of persons on-site and in surrounding areas that could have potentially been impacted by contaminated runoff or wind drift; and, to the extent practicable, list persons who may have been exposed;

(e)    on the basis of available information, assess the risk that there are buried flammable substances drums and/or other related contaminants on the site; where possible identify the location of such materials and make recommendations about any clean up and remediation required; identify where information is considered to be inadequate to enable a risk assessment and recommend action to improve the information base (which may include carrying out exploratory sampling of soils).

2.    The Chair will have open access to all documents, systems and studies held or accessible to CFA; access to all people employed or associated with CFA or the site, past and present (subject to their willingness to participate in the investigation); and access to all CFA resources necessary to thoroughly investigate and provide the report to fulfil these Terms of Reference (including the procurement of specialist and any other external resources as required).

3.    The report is to be completed and submitted to the Board and CEO of CFA by 30 June 2012 and following consideration by the Board and the CEO of CFA, the report will be made public.

4.    These Terms of Reference may be expanded to include other training sites if deemed necessary.

For all other updates relating to the Fiskville investigation, see Fiskville investigation updates