Stakeholder involvement
Dialogue between problem owners, end users and regulators is essential to reduce negative effects of PFAS on the environment and human health
The project has benefited from a strong dialogue with end users including Lindum (only in Norwiegian), AF Decom, Avinor, Forsvarsbygg (Norwegian Defence Estates Agency) and Miljødirektoratet (the Norwegian Environment Agency). Lindum and AF Decom offer solutions for contaminated soil, whilst Avinor and Forsvarsbygg own the majority of commercial and military airports in Norway. Given the stringent regulation of several PFAS in Norway, many of these airport sites have been earmarked for clean-up.
The research project has an associated stakeholder group that includes the following; Avinor, Forsvarsbygg, Lindum, AF Decom and Miljødirektoratet.
A workshop was held with the end user group where the following topics were discussed: PFAS from point and diffuse sources, optimal methods for PFAS analysis and risk assessment, regulation of PFAS in Norway and Europe and possible solutions for PFAS contamination in soil and water. Presentations from the workshop, and other presentations from the project can be found here.
The user group identified several challenges for future work including current and forthcoming policy where threshold concentrations are very low. The most common solution that is currently applied is landfilling which is costly and non-sustainable. The end user group was in agreement that the risk the PFAS pollution poses to the environment and human health should weigh economic cost against societal benefit.
