Just before Christmas a Freedom of Information request was received by Friends of the Earth from Goulburn Valley Water (GVW). GVW are responsible for providing drinking water to approximately 50 towns in the Goulburn River Catchment.
The information provided by GVW shows that PFAS has been found in raw drinking water throughout the region. Testing for PFAS by GVW appears to have started in September 2024.
37 communities recorded detections of PFAS. PFAS was detected in every community water supply that was tested. 16 community water supplies were not tested. PFAS was detected in a range of between 2.32 ng/L* to 10.07ng/L. (*ng/L = nanograms per litre. A nanogram is one billionth of a gram).
The detections stretched along 200km of the Goulburn River catchment from Woods Point in the Central Highlands through to Barmah on the Murray River. It appears that PFAS is widespread throughout the Goulburn River catchment and the levels detected could also indicate likely background levels occurring in many regions in Australia.
There were no breaches to the Australian Drinking Guidelines or the proposed new Guideline levels expected in early 2025. Only 12.8% of detections were for types of PFAS that have Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. 18.8% of detections were for types of PFAS that will be covered in the updated 2025 guidelines. 21 communities recorded a PFAS detection >1ng/L which would breach the US's, Environmental Working Group's PFAS guideline.
The highest levels were recorded at Katunga 10.07ng/L, Pyalong 9.98ng/L and Barmah 9.97ng/L. Katunga source their drinking water from bore water, Pyalong from the Mollison Creek and Barmah from the Murray River.
Note that PFAS was recorded at Woods Point (an unpotable water source) in the Central Highlands, a forested region, suggesting that PFAS is ubiquitous in the environment, including forested regions.
Alot more PFAS testing will need to occur to determine long term trends and also the validity of the September 2024 data before any solid conclusions can be made. Also of interest is that the tests employed by Goulburn Valley Water have a level of detection 1000 times lower than those employed by agencies such as Melbourne Water, meaning that the bulk of PFAS detections by many water agencies across Australia will go unreported. This is an impressive decision by Goulburn Valley Water to more closely scrutinise PFAS in the environment.
Detections of PFAS averaged about 6ng/L throughout the region. Total detections of PFAS by volume were dominated by PFBA, PFNA and PFOA. PFAS loads could be caused by atmospheric transport and precipitation. The PFAS chemicals PFNA, PFOA, PFHxA and PFHpA were detected in almost 100% of locations. PFBA, PFDA, PFPeA and 4:2 FTS were detected in almost 90% of community raw water supplies.
The FoI request also requested any pesticide detections by Goulburn Valley Water going back to 2017. 240 detections were listed, however of these two were for Atrazine (Dookie and Euroa), one for Glyphosate (Alexandra) and another for MCPA (Cobram). The rest of the detections were for the pesticides Chloropicrin and Dalapon (2,2-DPA).
Both of these substances can also be created when chlorine used as a disinfectant reacts with organic molecules in the treated water. Because of the extent of the detections chlorine disinfection appears to be the largest source of 'pesticide' pollution in Goulburn Valley Water's water supplies. The highest levels of Chloropicrin were detected at Strathbogie in September 2019 where levels as high as 100 parts per billion were detected (probably an Australian record). The highest levels of Dalapon were detected at Colbinabbin (16 parts per billion) in October 2019. This level was 3.2% of the Australian drinking water guideline. There is no guideline level for Chloropicrin in Australian drinking water.
