FORMER deputy police commissioner Kieran Walshe will oversee the clean-up of the debacle at the CFA's Fiskville Training College.
His appointment comes seven months after the CFA promised to address concerns raised in a $4 million report, including monitoring the health of 250 people at risk of developing cancer from their exposure and assessing the contaminated soil and water, the Herald Sun reports.
Mr Walshe will audit the CFA's response to the inquiry in the next two years and make his report public.
The Joy report into the contamination confirmed staff and volunteers at the college were known to have been exposed to dangerous chemicals, but were never told of the risk.
CFA chief executive Mick Bourke said it was determined to address matters arising from the Joy report.
"The CFA is pleased to have secured the services of a person of the calibre of Kieran Walshe to ensure that Fiskville is a world-class emergency service training facility," Mr Bourke said.
But United Firefighter Union secretary Peter Marshall said it wasn't clear how Mr Walshe's police credentials would equip him for monitoring Fiskville ground and water contamination.
"The CFA describes him as independent, yet he will report directly to the CFA chairman - where is the separation of powers?" Mr Marshall said.
"If he is to be truly independent, we call on him to show more transparency than the CFA, and to publicly release all the CFA's test results on ground and water contamination."
The Herald Sun uncovered the suspected cancer cluster at Fiskville in December, 2011, when it first published explosive claims by respected former CFA chief Brian Potter, who said he believed his multiple cancers were a result of his time at the contaminated site.
Read more at the Herald Sun.
