Hunter Water continues to supply safe drinking water to Lower Hunter

Hunter Water welcomes the release today by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of the revised Australian Drinking Water Guidelines for PFAS.

Under an extensive water quality testing and monitoring program established more than eight years ago, Hunter Water routinely tests for PFAS in all drinking water supply zones, including at 83 verification sampling points across our water distribution network.

The testing program confirms that drinking water supplied by Hunter Water is safe and meets the revised Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. This is based on the results of more than 4,000 samples collected from our water quality verification sampling points.

Hunter Water’s approach to testing for PFAS is comprehensive and reflects best practice. We routinely test for a suite of 28 PFAS compounds.

The values for PFAS in the revised Australian Drinking Water Guidelines apply to the treated drinking water supplied to customers, and not to the untreated (raw) water stored in our dams or from aquifers.

Hunter Water reports all detections at or over two parts per trillion, or 0.002 micrograms per litre, which is our independent laboratory's limit of reporting.

Reporting on PFAS results is provided monthly to the public, and on a frequent regular basis to our regulators.

Hunter Water is committed to supplying high-quality safe drinking water that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

Our operating licence, issued by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), requires us to comply with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and IPART audits us each year on our compliance with the operating licence.