It's all stations go at the moment in terms of PFAS issues in drinking water. Three separate inquiries are underway and all could have profound impact on how PFAS pollution is dealt with into the future. FoE campaigner Anthony Amis is scrambling to meet deadlines over the next three weeks to the National Health and Medical Research Council, the NSW Parliament Select Committee and the Australian Senate Inquiry which kicked off with a public hearing in Canberra on the 13th of November. Journalists are also getting their radars up and contacting FoE about issues surrounding biosolids and recycled water, something which FoE has been raising for the past couple of years. On top of this Anthony is also processing data from information requests from a number of water authorities and local government.
FoE's PFAS database is probably the best in the country. FoE's PFAS blogs have been receiving the most attention regarding any other environmental issue in 2024!
None of FoE's PFAS research is paid, nor is any of our pesticide work, so any donations are urgently required and are much appreciated.
The following information has been taken from the draft of FoE's submission into the National Health and Medical Research Council and focuses on three areas where PFAS has been detected in drinking water supplies. Two of the information sources from the cities of Bundaberg and Bathurst were sourced from a Right to Information Request to Bundaberg Regional Council and a GIPA request to Bathurst Regional Council. The data concerning the PFAS contamination in the Blue Mountains has been sourced from recent test results from Sydney Water and WaterNSW. These tests only started due to a flurry of information concerning PFAS published in the Sydney Morning Herald in June, which forced the NSW Government's hand to test Sydney's water supplies. Communities in the Blue Mountains have formed a very effective group pressuring Sydney Water to get access to safe drinking water and to resolve the contamination crisis which has probably been ongoing for many years.
Bundaberg (Queensland)
The Right to Information request to Bundaberg Council revealed 192 positive PFAS detections across a range of locations including houses, bores, reservoirs and decommissioned bores between the years 2017 and 2024. Residents nearest to Dr May’s Bore (on Dr Mays Road) were drinking PFOS+PFHxS up to 180ng/L in April 2018 (The Australian drinking water guideline for PFOS+PFHxS is 70ng/L and it is proposed that the new guidelines will reduce PFOS to 4ng/L and PFHxS to 30ng/L). The highest levels were detected in a residence opposite Norville Special School. Dr Mays Bore was shut down in April 2018 at the same time that community in around Svensson Heights were informed about the contamination. Total Fluorinated Organics totaled 400ng/L in Dr May’s Reservoir seven months earlier in September 2017. The source of the contamination appears to be the Bundaberg Airport which is located about 2km south Dr Mays Bore. The PFAS plume at Bundaberg appears to be spreading, with PFAS recently detected in groundwater near a bore at Baldwin Swamp Environmental Park which is about 6km north east of the airport.
Google Earth image of Bundaberg showing location of Bundaberg Regional Airport (bottom left of image). The PFAS contamination is spreading through the groundwater from the airport mainly in a north easterly direction towards the Burnett River. Dr May's drinking water reservoir about 2km north east of the airport was found to be contaminated with PFAS in late 2017. The Dr May's bore was shut down in April 2018. The bore supplied about 7,000 people with drinking water. Levels of PFOS were detected in the Reservoir at 12 times the new proposed PFOS guideline and four times the proposed PFHxS guideline.
Powers Street Bore, located ~3km north east of the airport, was taken offline in October 2023 and decommissioned May 2024 after PFHxS and PFOS was recorded at 470ng/L in April 2023. Water from Powers Street Bore was apparently diluted before being stored at Bourbong Street Reservoir, which is Bundaberg's drinking water supply. Bourbong also receives water from the Branyan Water Treatment Plant, which effectively dilutes the PFAS to 'safe' levels. Powers Street Reservoir averaged PFHxS+PFOS of 125ng/L between 2018-2023. The highest PFHxS+PFOS levels at Bourbong were 26ng/L in April 2018. Average PFHxS+PFOS levels at Bourbong have averaged 2.7ng/L between 2018 and 2023. Mulgrave Bore was also decommissioned in May 2024 with PFHxS+PFOS levels reaching 89.9ng/L in April 2023. Queensland Government monitoring of the Burnett River has revealed PFOS levels as high as 0.3ng/L In summary possibly up to 7000 residents in Bundaberg would have been exposed to unsafe levels of PFAS in their drinking water up to 2018 and possibly for decades before that. Source Australian PFAS Map.
Blue Mountains (New South Wales)
In June 2024, the Sydney Morning Herald published a number of articles on PFAS contamination in water supplies. The articles eventually pressured the NSW Government to undertake PFAS testing in Sydney Water catchments. After the testing it was revealed that the highest PFAS levels appear to be in dams supplying drinking water to a number of communities in the Blue Mountains, namely Katoomba and Blackheath. Subsequent research is now pointing out that the contamination is most likely associated with a truck accident near Medlow Spring where Fire Fighting Foam was used. Local residents witnessed retardant from the accident flowing into the Medlow Dam catchment. The incident raises a number of questions, including where else has fire fighting foam been used in water supply catchments across Australia in both accidents, building fires etc. The use of fire fighting foam in bushfires in the past also needs further investigation.
Cascade Water Filtration Plant in the Blue Mountains. At the current rate of decrease, the PFOS and PFHxS levels at Blackheath could possibly reach 0.004ug/L some time in late 2025. PFAS levels are being ‘diluted’ with water piped in from Oberon Dam, 47km away. Why should residents in the Blue Mountains cop drinking water that is likely to be regarded as unsafe in 2025, but safe in 2024 due to PFOS guidelines proposed to being reduced from 70ng/L to 4ng/L?
Image of Medlow Dam and Greaves Creek Dam with wavy blues lines near Medlow Bath. The vehicle crash and fire location is about 1.5km upstream of Medlow Dam. "One water sample that contained some foam showed 14.04 micrograms of PFAS chemicals per litre – 200 times Australian drinking water levels. Another sample taken nearby was 0.08 micrograms, or only slightly above safe drinking water levels. This suggested PFAS was accumulating in the foam, Wright said." (Source: Sydney Morning Herald). To resolve the contamination of the Blue Mountains water supply, water is having to be piped in from Lake Oberon (blue pin) located 47km west. PFAS has been detected in Oberon dam at 0.6ng/L in 2024.
Bathurst (New South Wales)
The city of Bathurst has been monitoring for PFAS chemicals since 2017. There are two sampling locations, one at the water filtration plant and the other upstream at Montavella Road about 3km upstream on the Macquarie River. The average PFOS detection level at Montavella is about 25% higher than the WFP. What is the source of PFAS chemicals in Bathurst’s drinking water supply? Most of the catchment upstream of Bathurst is farming land.
There have been a couple of breaches to the new proposed PFOS guideline levels at Bathurst since 2017.
Detections at Bathurst are dominated by PFHxA, PFPeA and PFHpA. None of these chemicals are proposed to have drinking water guidelines by the NHMRC. It is interesting to note that a major corporation like Sydney Water is only testing for three PFAS chemicals, but a regional council has been testing for 10 times more PFAS chemicals since 2017. It is also worth considering that the total PFAS detections in locations such as Bundaberg and the Blue Mountains are likely to be much higher, if a large range of PFAS chemicals were tested for.
Sum of PFAS at Montavella Road. The massive spike occurred in August 2020 when a detection of 6:2 FTS at 345ng/L occurred. This is possibly the highest detection of 6:2 FTS in an Australian water supply. Drinking water for Bathurst comes from Ben Chifley Dam. Water is released from the dam which then flows into Campbells River and then into the Macquarie River. Ben Chifley Dam has not been monitored for PFAS.
Catchment upstream from Bathurst’s water filtration plant is dominated by farmland. What is the source of the PFAS that has been detected in Bathurst's drinking water supply? Ben Chifley Dam is located 15km south east of Bathurst. PFAS detected at the water treatment plant is likely to either come from the dam itself or from landuse between the dam and the water treatment plant. If the farmland is the source of the pollution, what ramifications does this have for other agricultural regions of Australia? Have biosolids from waste water treatment plants been used in the catchment? Biosolids can be a major source of PFAS pollution. A feasilibility report for Bathurst Effluent Reuse Scheme was written in 2006 proposing to use effluent on farms upstream of the towns water supply.
Has there been fire fighting foam used in the catchment or is the source of the pollution coming from agricultural chemicals. Hundreds of pesticides registered for use in Australia are fluorinated. Recent research from Europe is also indicating that the fluorinated chemical trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is mostly detected in agricultural areas. Noone in Australia is testing for TFA. What impact is PFAS having on the ecology of waterways across much of Australia?
Average detections from Bundaberg, Blue Mountains, Svensson Heights and Bourbong Reservoir, show that Blackheath and Katoomba will be in breach of the new proposed PFOS guidelines of 4ng/L by approximately 3 times during 2024. Averages for Bathurst and Bourbong are about a tenth of the new proposed level. The clear outlier is Svensson heights in 2018, where average PFOS levels were almost 12 times the new proposed PFOS guideline of 4ng/L and 4 times the new PFHxS guideline of 30ng/L
None of FoE's PFAS research is paid, nor is any of our pesticide work, so any donations are urgently required and are much appreciated.
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