Water load of rubbish – council rejects claims of dangerous chemicals in our drinking supply

Cairns Regional Council has spoken on a report based off a 2011 study which claimed the city’s drinking water contained dangerous levels of “forever chemicals”.

Copperlode Falls Dam and water intake, on the edge of Lake Morris, the main drinking supply for Cairns and surrounds. Picture: Brendan Radke

Cairns Regional Council has rejected claims the city’s drinking water contains dangerous levels of contaminants likely to cause cancer.

A Nine newspapers report on June 11, based largely on a University of Queensland study published in 2011, named Cairns as one of 34 locations in Australia where PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, had been present in drinking water.

A council spokesman rejected that suggestion and said testing done in 2018 did not detect either chemical in Cairns’ water supply.

“Cairns Regional Council works with Queensland Health to assess any potential risk of PFAS to the region’s drinking water supply,” the spokesman said.

“In 2018, council completed investigative monitoring which uncovered no PFAS detections. Samples were taken from numerous sites covering all the Cairns water supply schemes.”

The spokesman also said council was at a loss regarding the 2011 study.

“Council was not involved in the 2011 University of Queensland study and is not aware of the location where the study samples were taken from.”

High levels of the dangerous chemicals were detected in an in-ground water pit at Cairns Fire Station back in 2016. Picture: Stewart McLean

The chemicals highlighted in the study were perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

They are called forever chemicals because they do not break down and can accumulate in the human body once ingested.

Tests in 2016 revealed high levels of both chemicals were present in an in-ground water pit at Cairns Fire Station in Westcourt.

The World Health Organisation considers PFOA as carcinogenic to humans and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic.

US health authorities recently drastically slashed the amount of PFOS and PFOA permitted in tap water due to new research highlighting the dangers posed by both chemicals.

Australian water standards now permit 140 times the “safe” amount of PFOA in drinking water as the United States.

The authors of the 2011 study were contacted for comment.

Originally published as Water load of rubbish – council rejects claims of dangerous chemicals in our drinking supply