PFAS have been found in water as far afield as Woods Point, with suggestions raised that these synthetic chemicals are now ubiquitous in the environment.
Used in many products, PFAS or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances can be found in clothing, carpets, furniture, adhesives, paper packaging, cookware, and fire-fighting foams.
They are also used in the aerospace, automotive, construction, and electronics industries.
Otherwise known as "forever chemicals", PFAS do not break down easily in the environment and can leak into the soil, water and air.
A health hazard they can then build up in people and animals over time, with exposure through consuming contaminated food or water, using products made with PFAS, or breathing air containing PFAS.
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Some PFAS are classified as reproductive toxins and suspected carcinogens.
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 have been found in raw drinking water throughout the region, with the chemicals also found in unpotable water sources like those recorded in Woods Point.
Every community that was tested returned a positive result for PFAS with a total of 37 water supplies recording detections.
Sixteen community supplies were not tested.
The detections stretched along 200 kilometres of the Goulburn River catchment from Woods Point in the Central Highlands through to Barmah on the Murray River, with the highest levels recorded at Katunga, Pyalong and Barmah.
Katunga source their drinking water from bore water, Pyalong from the Mollison Creek and Barmah from the Murray River.
It appears PFAS is widespread throughout the catchment and levels detected could indicate likely background levels occurring in many regions in Australia.
However though detected, levels do not breach current Australian Drinking guidelines nor proposed new Guideline levels which are expected to be released this year.
Goulburn Valley Water reiterated the drinking water the organisation provides to customers and communities complies with the Victorian Safe Drinking Water Act 2003.
The GVW explained the Department of Health regulates drinking water quality and has a comprehensive regulatory framework in place and this framework includes a rigorous monitoring program.
As part of GVW’s monitoring program, they regularly test for a range of chemicals in the drinking water which includes testing for PFAS in source water supplies.
“The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines specify safe limits for PFAS - monitoring results show our source water supplies meet the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, as well as the draft PFAS guidelines under review by the National Health and Medical Research Council,” said Goulburn Valley Water Managing Director Steve Capewell.
Friends of the Earth commended Goulburn Valley Water on their monitoring of PFAS in the environment.
Tests employed by Goulburn Valley Water have a level of detection 1000 times lower than those employed by similar agencies such as Melbourne Water, meaning that the bulk of PFAS detections by many water agencies go unreported.
According to Friends of the Earth this demonstrates “an impressive decision by Goulburn Valley Water to more closely scrutinise PFAS in the environment”.
Friends of the Earth also requested data pertaining to pesticide detections by GVW dating back to 2017.
A total of 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.
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.
