In a first for EPA Victoria, AECOM was engaged to assess the regional groundwater quality of the Fishermans Bend Urban Area and Employment Precinct to inform future development decisions across the precinct. The 5 precincts that make up the study area were heavily industrialised dating back to the European settlement of Melbourne and comprised a cocktail of contaminants including PFAS associated with various manufacturing and industrial processes.

Our objective was to characterise the condition of the shallow aquifer to determine key factors that may be influencing its quality at a regional scale to assist in streamlining the future redevelopment of Australia’s largest Urban Renewal Precinct. Factors influencing the site beyond the current industrial uses, included an extremely shallow groundwater that was tidally influenced, former queries and landfills, as well as subsurface infrastructure which all had influence on the groundwater flow and conditions.

AECOM through our experienced teams and key technical specialists were able to provide approaches to reliably characterise contamination including PFAS to provide an agreed site characterisation and remediation tool, which allows the redevelopment of the site to avoid multiple assessment by private and government developers.