15/1/25: Please note there now appears errors in the data sent through from Goulburn Valley Water. This blog will change once the new data has been sent through by GVW. "The laboratory confirmed that there had been a conversion error in their system that wrongly multiplied the Limit of Reporting (LOR) by 1,000 for the GVW results. As an example, PFOS should have had an LOR of <2 PPT but was reported as <0.002 PPT. Consequently, the corresponding µg/L LOR became <0.000002. GVW apologises for the inconvenience but at the time of your Freedom of Information request GVW provided you the information as supplied by the testing laboratory."
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. 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.
Map above highlighting Total PFAS detections in the Goulburn River catchment recorded in September 2024. The numbers represent ng/L*. The green pins represent non-potable drinking water supplies. The blue pins represent raw water detections. 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. (*ng/L = nanograms per litre. A nanogram is one billionth of a gram).
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. The Woods Point sample consisted mainly of PFHxS, PTDeDA, PFNA and PFHpS. Source water for Woods Point is Brewery Creek.
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 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. The yellow bars represent non-potable drinking water supplies. All 37 water supplies recorded PFAS. What are the sources of the PFAS if it is being detected everywhere?
Total detections of PFAS by volume were dominated by PFBA, PFNA and PFOA. The yellow bars represent PFAS chemicals that have an Australian drinking water guideline. Only 17% of the PFAS detections by volume, have drinking water guidelines, meaning that authorities are essentially 'flying blind' in determining safety for over 80% of PFAS detected. PFBS will be granted a guideline in 2025. Also of interest is that recent detections of PFAS by Greater Western Water have also found that the key PFAS chemicals are PFHpA and PFBA. Interestingly a major study of Melbourne and surrounds published in 2024, found in rural areas the highest levels of PFAS chemicals were for PFBA. The authors suggest that PFBA "has previously been detected in rainwater, and studies indicate that PFBA can disperse long distances via 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 Environmental Working Group in the United States has recommended a health guideline of 1 ng/L for all PFAS chemicals in drinking water. If such guidelines were adopted in Australia, PFBA and N-EtFOSAA were the most frequently detected PFAS chemicals in the Goulburn River catchment >1ng/L.
Taking into account the Environmental Working Group's health guideline of 1ng/L, it would appear that the communities with the highest number of detections exceeding 1ng/L were Katunga, Barmah and Dookie. PFAS chemicals exceeding the 1ng/L at Katunga were: N-EtFOSAA, N-EtFOSA, FOSA and PFOA. For Barmah they were: N-EtFOSAA, PFNA and PFOA. For Dookie the PFAS chemicals were: N-EtFOSAA, PFOS and PFBA.
In terms of drinking water, only three PFAS chemicals have been granted guideline levels in Australia. These chemicals are PFOS, PFHxS and PFOA. The current guideline for PFOS+PFHxS is 70ng/L and PFOA at 560ng/L. New guideline levels proposed to take affect in 2025 are for PFOS 4ng/L, PFHxS 30ng/L, PFOA 200ng/L and PFBS 1000ng/L.
Detections of PFOS by Goulburn Valley Water were below proposed Australian drinking water guideline levels and well below existing guideline levels. The highest levels of PFOS were detected at Goulburn Weir, which is a non-potable water supply. PFOS was detected in 10 of the 37 water supplies sampled.
Levels of PFHxS were detected in 5 water supplies, with the only potable supply being Yea.
PFOA was detected in 36 of the 37 water supplies, with an average detection of 0.67ng/L. The US EPA set a PFOA guideline of 4ng/L in April 2024. The National Health and Medical Research Council is proposing to drop Australia's PFOA guideline by 560ng/L to 200ng/L in 2025. The new proposed guideline is 50 times higher than the US guideline!
Total PFAS detections were highest in Katunga, Pyalong and Barmah. PFBA was mainly detected at Pyalong, with PFOA detections dominating at Barmah. Katunga's drinking water is sourced from bore water indicating groundwater pollution. Interestingly N-EtFOSA detected in Katunga's groundwater was the chemical used in the manufacture of Sulfluramid which is a banned insecticide. N-EtFOSA was also detected at Numukrah. FOSA, also detected at Katunga is a degradation product of N-EtFOSA. Barmah source their drinking water from the Murray River, as does Cobram, which is 60-70km upstream. PFAS detections at Barmah were approximately double that of Cobram. Much higher levels have been reported at Lake Mulwala, about 30km upstream of Cobram, indicating that the PFAS problem in the Murray River is probably extensive.
Broken Creek 6km upstream of Nathalia. Broken Creek supplies drinking water to Nathalia and Numurkah. PFAS levels detected in Broken Creek at Nathalia and Numurkah were between 5.27 and 4.59ng/L respectively.
Tatura's drinking water supply is sourced from Channel 3/5. PFAS levels at Tatura's Reservoir were 4.11ng/L. Tatura is located in the Central Goulburn irrigation area. PFAS detections from 7 water supplies in the Central Goulburn averaged 6.59ng/L, with the highest levels recorded at Colbinabbin which sources water from the Waranga Western Channel.
Katamatite's raw water reservoir, supplied via this channel was 5.55ng/L. Katamatite is located in the Murray Valley supply area.
Pesticides
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.
Detections for Chloropicrin and Dalapon stopped in June 2020 and thankfully no pesticides have been detected in Goulburn Valley Water's supply network since that date. Perhaps Goulburn Valley Water should also be defining N-EtFOSA (Sulfluramid) detections as pesticides?
Our PFAS and Pesticide work is running on empty . Any donations are greatly appreciated.
For more information contact: [email protected]