Blue Mountains News
Council’s recreational waterways test well below PFAS guidelines
By Blue Mountains City Council
Posted: 21 Mar 2025
Mayor Mark Greenhill and Council’s Director of Environment & Planning Services Will Langevad
Recent testing of Council’s recreational waterways delivered good news amid community concerns about the quality of local drinking water.
When Council became aware of additional concerns from the community about the possible presence of PFAS chemicals in our recreational waterways, in late 2024 Council undertook testing at a number of its recreational water quality sites.
Sites included Megalong Creek, Minnehaha Falls, Wentworth Falls Lake and Glenbrook Lagoon.
The results across all sites showed that PFAS chemicals are well below recommended levels for Recreational Water Quality (RWQ), according to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines.
Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill welcomed the results: “These PFAS testing results are great news for our community, in terms of our recreational waterways.
“We undertook these tests in response to community concern and would like to reassure residents that these waterways do not pose a PFAS related risk to swimmers or anyone else making contact with the water. Results from all sites were far below the guideline values for PFAS in recreational water.
“The health of our waterways is of the utmost importance to Council and we understand the community’s interest following issues raised with PFAS in our drinking water.
“We will continue to do what we can within our limits, but it’s important to note that Council is responsible for our recreational water, not our drinking water.
“Having said that, earlier this year, Council requested an urgent update from responsible agencies – Water NSW, Sydney Water and NSW Health – on the issue of PFAS in drinking water and we will continue to closely monitor the situation and advocate for timely action.”
While Council’s recreational waterways are regularly tested for water quality throughout late spring and summer, this PFAS specific testing was a single action in response to community interest.
It is not expected that regular testing for PFAS will be required, given the low results and that Council does not anticipate any significant new inputs of PFAS into these waterways. If this situation changes, Council will undertake testing again in the future.
Council advises swimmers to continue to keep up to date with weekly Beachwatch ratings for recreational water quality, and be aware of physical hazards such as deep water, snags, strong currents, cold water and submerged objects.
For further information, please see here
For further information on water quality at Blue Mountains waterways go to: here
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