Lockheed Martin company, Sikorsky Australia, working with Shoalhaven City Council over PFAS contaminate waste water discharge

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said an internal review was ongoing in parallel to the council's investigation.

"Sikorsky Australia has independently and proactively taken steps to eliminate the source of release and improve our overall environmental impact mitigation strategies, including new management and operational processes to minimise potential risks," the spokesperson said.

"We will continue to work with the council as the investigation progresses."

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Shoalhaven City Council issued a "clean-up notice" to Sikorsky Aircraft Australia Ltd over the release of 100,000 litres of PFAS contaminated waste water into the Shoalhaven sewerage system in March this year.

Sikorsky Australia provides maintenance services to HMAS Albatross, from the nearby Albatross Aviation Technology Park and had an unintentional waste water discharge into the local sewerage system.

The spill happened in March, however, council wasn't notified of the incident until May 16, which was then reported to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

The issued clean-up notice requires a number of investigations and reports be provided to council regarding the operation of Sikorsky's wastewater system.

The notice also requires actions to prevent any further non approved discharge.

The joint investigation by council's Environmental Services Unit, Compliance Unit and Shoalwater has included interviews with those involved in the operations at the time of discharge.

Council has been the lead investigator of the incident with EPA providing support and advice and any options regarding compliance action will be reported to the Director Planning Environment and Development, Phil Costello.

There is still the possibility of fines over the incident or if any similar incidents occur in the future.