Water Quality

Council provides safe and reliable drinking water to the propoerties located in the services areas of Aberdeen, Cassilis, Merriwa, Murrurundi and Scone. 

Our drinking water is regularly tested and analysed by independent NATA accredited laboratory to comply with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) 2011. Council closely work with NSW Health to make sure Council's water supply is safe to drink. 

Council has developed a Drinking Water Management System with the assistance from NSW Health to comply with NSW Guidelines for drinking water management systems. 

Sometimes Council issues a notice to potable drinking water customers which is "Boil Water Alert" if the water supply is not suitible for drinking. This could happen due to a few reasons, poor raw water quality, failure of the treatment process or detection of contamination in the potable water supply system. In those instances Council gets advice from NSW Health to make sure to protect all customers and follow all communication protocols to notify customers immediately.

UHSC participated in the NSW Health arranged PFAS screening for the Water supplies. Under the program Council did sampling from Glenbawn Dam treated water supply, Aberdeen river intake treated water supply, Merriwa bore treated water supply and Cassilis bore treated water supply. Samples were taken on 22 October 2024.

      Upper Hunter Water Supply Systems - Sample Results (ng/L)
 
PFAS Category   Current Australian Drinking Water Guideline Recommendation Proposed Australian Health-based Drinking Water Guideline Recommendation Cassilis Bore Treated Water– Sampled on 22/10/2024 Merriwa Bore Treated Water– Sampled on 22/10/2024   Scone Glenbawn Supply Treated Water– Sampled on 22/10/2024   Aberdeen River Supply Treated Water– Sampled on 22/10/2024  
PFOA Based on human health considerations, the concentration of PFOA in drinking water should not exceed 560 ng/L Based on human health considerations, the concentration of PFOA in drinking water should not exceed 200 ng/L  0.1  0.1  <0.1  0.1
PFOS + PFHxS Based on human health considerations, the sum of the concentrations of PFOS and PFHxS in drinking water should not exceed 70 ng/L    <0.1  <0.1  <0.1  <0.1
PFOS   Based on human health considerations, the concentration of PFOS in drinking water should not exceed 4 ng/L  <0.1  <0.1  <0.1  <0.1
PFHxS   Based on human health considerations, the concentration of PFHxS in drinking water should not exceed 30 ng/L  <0.1  <0.1  <0.1  <0.1
PFBS No health-based guideline value in the current Guidelines Based on human health considerations, the concentration of PFBS in drinking water should not exceed 1000 ng/L  <0.5  <0.5  <0.5  <0.5
GenX Chemicals No health-based guideline value in the current Guidelines No health-based guideline value is considered        

Note that results for all supplies are below the Level of Detection and the new Draft Guideline Values for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water released by the NHMRC.

At this stage NSW Health has not recommended any further PFAS testing.

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