WaterNSW admits PFAS contamination could date from 1992

Blue Mountains residents were drinking water with elevated levels of cancer-causing “forever chemicals” for up to 32 years, an initial investigation by WaterNSW has found.

The agency confirmed on Friday that the PFAS chemicals that led to the disconnection of Medlow Dam and Greaves Creek Dam from the drinking water supply of 78,000 people last August were consistent with a toxic fire fighting foam banned in 2007. This suggests the drinking water had been contaminated for at least 17 years, but probably longer.

STOP PFAS convener Jon Dee in Leura.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong

The report prepared for WaterNSW by engineering firm Jacobs Group confirmed that the contamination could have occurred as early as 1992 when a petrol tanker crashed on the Great Western Highway near Medlow Bath. As previously reported by this masthead, more than 400 litres of PFAS-rich foam was thought to have been used at the site as crews rushed in from Blackheath, Katoomba, Leura and Mount Victoria.

The WaterNSW report also suggests a 2002 vehicle crash and the Medlow Bath Rural Fire Brigade Station could be potential sources of the contamination. The RFS has started its own investigation.

WaterNSW found, based on 250 samples from 37 locations, that the PFAS contamination was particularly elevated in the Adams Creek tributary, including near the Great Western Highway and Medlow Bath township.

When WaterNSW shut off the dams last year, disconnecting the pipeline that flowed into the three Cascade dams and the filtration plant, which Sydney Water says supplies 78,000 residents from Mount Victoria to Glenbrook, it was on the basis of government tests that showed PFAS present in the water at 0.09 micrograms per litre – slightly above the Australian guidelines of 0.07 micrograms.

But independent tests commissioned by this masthead in early September found PFAS concentrations at 3.7 micrograms per litre, more than 50 times higher than the guidelines, in Adams Creek, which feeds Medlow Dam.

In September, the NSW government ordered statewide testing of local drinking water supplies for PFAS chemicals. The following month, the National Health and Medical Research Council proposed new guidelines that would dramatically slash the level of PFAS allowed in drinking water, but this is not yet in force.

Jon Dee, convener of the local STOP PFAS action group and a former Australian of the Year for his environmental work including co-founding Planet Ark in the 1990s, said he was underwhelmed by the report, which left key questions unanswered after eight months of investigation.

“They still cannot tell us when the PFAS contamination of our drinking water began,” Dee said. “They still cannot tell us how high the PFAS levels have been in the tap water that we’ve been drinking.

“They still can’t tell us how long we’ve been drinking toxic tap water, and yet they insist that our tap water has been safe. An eight-month investigation has gone nowhere – I am absolutely flabbergasted.”

Surface-level testing showed the PFAS levels at Medlow Dam, Greaves Creek Dam and Adams Creek were significantly above the current safe drinking levels. The Cascade Dams – which are still supplying drinking water to Blue Mountains residents – are also well above the proposed guidelines for PFOS in particular.

However, WaterNSW only tested the sediment at Medlow Dam. The report says Greaves Creek Dam was not accessible, and that WaterNSW decided sediment collection from the Cascade dams would risk releasing chemicals into the water column, making the situation worse.

Dee said any investigation that did not test the sediment of all five dams was “deeply flawed”, and the excuses were weak, given that WaterNSW owned the dams, they were easily accessible and only small samples were required.

A WaterNSW spokesperson added that the water supplied to the Cascades filtration plant had been supplemented with PFAS-free water from Oberon Dam since October.

The report recommends that both remediation and water treatment could be options, but it notes that treatment for drinking water standard was a matter for Sydney Water.

A Sydney Water spokesperson said in a statement the agency installed a $3.4 million interim treatment system at the Cascades Water Treatment Plant last December to reduce PFAS levels in line with the proposed guidelines.

“Sydney Water understands the concerns raised by the local community and would like to reassure them that the water supplied to the Blue Mountains is safe to drink,” the statement said.

Yet this masthead has reported on the health problems of Blue Mountains residents, including Nick A’hern who had levels of PFOS – one of the most notorious PFAS chemicals and the one found in the fire fighting foam – six times above average. A’hern had prostate cancer, his wife bowel cancer and their then 33-year-old son testicular cancer.

Dee said he arranged for A’hern’s test, which cost $500 when done privately. STOP PFAS wants the government to pay for residents’ testing and is preparing a class action.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said “the current evidence and health advice does not support the use of blood testing in these circumstances” because low-level exposure was unlikely to cause significant health problems. However, he said the Chief Health Officer had convened an expert panel to advise on the issue as new evidence emerged.

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