2024 Cascade Water Filtration Plant
20/11/24: Source Water Inlet to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0071ug/L, PFOS 0.0093ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0164ug/L
6/11/24: Source Water Inlet to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0074ug/L, PFOS 0.0113ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0187ug/L
23/10/24: Source Water Inlet to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0075ug/L, PFOS 0.0098ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0173ug/L
17/9/24: Raw Water supplied to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0082ug/L, PFOS 0.0122ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0204ug/L
3/9/24: Raw Water supplied to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0113ug/L, PFOS 0.0124ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0237ug/L
16/8/24: Raw Water supplied to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0092ug/L, PFOS 0.0111ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0203ug/L
31/7/24: Raw Water supplied to Cascades Water Filtration Plant. PFOA <0.0005ug/L, PFHxS 0.0109ug/L, PFOS 0.0136ug/L. Sum of PFHxS+PFOS 0.0245ug/L
https://www.waternsw.com.au/water-services/water-quality/pfas/blue-mountains-investigations
Cascade WFP Blackheath (Monitoring by Sydney Water)
25/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0002ug/L, PFOS 0.0081ug/L, PFHxS 0.0049ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0130ug/L
18/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0002ug/L, PFOS 0.0069ug/L, PFHxS 0.0084ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0153ug/L
12/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0006ug/L, PFOS 0.0098ug/L, PFHxS 0.0083ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0184ug/L
5/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0004ug/L, PFOS 0.0079ug/L, PFHxS 0.0075ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0154ug/L
22/10/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0006ug/L, PFOS 0.01ug/L, PFHxS 0.0109ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0209ug/L
15&16/10/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0005ug/L, PFOS 0.0084ug/L, PFHxS 0.0075ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0156ug/L
9/10/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0006ug/L, PFOS 0.0118ug/L, PFHxS 0.0117ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0235ug/L
3/10/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0004ug/L, PFOS 0.0089ug/L, PFHxS 0.0123ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0212ug/L
17/9/24: PFOS 0.011ug/L, PFHxS 0.013ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.024ug/L
10/9/24: Source water inlet to Cascades WFP – Inlet Tap Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0213ug/L Water NSW
27/8/24: PFOS 0.013ug/L, PFHxS 0.013ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.026ug/L
9/7/24: PFOS 0.0147ug/L, PFHxS 0.0191ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.0338ug/L
9/7/24 (Duplicate sample): PFOS 0.0146ug/L, PFHxS 0.016ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.0306ug/L
25/6/24: PFOS 0.0155ug/L, PFHxS 0.0136ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.0291ug/L
Cascade WFP Katoomba (Monitoring by Sydney Water)
25/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0001ug/L, PFOS 0.0083ug/L, PFHxS 0.0058ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0141ug/L
18/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0004ug/L, PFOS 0.0071ug/L, PFHxS 0.008ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0151ug/L
12/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0005ug/L, PFOS 0.0082ug/L, PFHxS 0.0097ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0179ug/L
5/11/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0003ug/L, PFOS 0.0084ug/L, PFHxS 0.0068ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0152ug/L
22/10/24: Cascade WFP: PFOA 0.0006ug/L, PFOS 0.0095ug/L, PFHxS 0.0104ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0199ug/L
15&16/10/24: Cascades WFP: PFOA 0.0005ug/L, PFOS 0.011ug/L, PFHxS 0.0081ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0191ug/L
9/10/24: Cascades WFP: PFOA 0.0006ug/L, PFOS 0.0127ug/L, PFHxS 0.0147ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0274ug/L
3/10/24: Cascades WFP: PFOA 0.0006ug/L, PFOS 0.0091ug/L, PFHxS 0.0123ug/L Sum of PFOS+PFHxS 0.0214ug/L
17/9/24: PFOS 0.013ug/L, PFHxS 0.014ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.027ug/L
27/8/24: PFOS 0.013ug/L, PFHxS 0.014ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.027ug/L
9/7/24: PFOS 0.014ug/L, PFHxS 0.0179ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.0319ug/L
25/6/24: PFOS 0.0164ug/L, PFHxS 0.0142ug/L. Total PFOS+PFHxS = 0.0306ug/L
3/12/24 New mobile treatment system to remove PFAS from drinking water after ‘forever chemicals’ found in Blue Mountains dams
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-03/multi-million-pfas-mobile-system-nsw-cascade-water-plant/104674212 Xanthe Gregory
Blue Mountains residents say a multi-million-dollar filtration system being installed at a drinking water plant identified as a PFAS hotspot has come too late.
The state government is installing technology to remove “forever chemicals” from drinking water at a hotspot in the Blue Mountains where people have been consuming PFAS-contaminated supplies.
Sydney Water has been testing outlets for per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) across its network since June this year as the substances are linked to health issues, such as cancer.
Authorities found that untreated water being fed into the Cascade Water Filtration Plant had traces of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and PFHxS, forms of PFAS, above levels currently considered safe in Australia.
The plant supplies about 41,000 homes in Leura, Katoomba, Catalina, Blackheath and Mt Victoria.
In August, WaterNSW shut two small dams on the outskirts of Sydney that supply the plant, Medlow Dam and Greaves Creek Dam.
The latest tests from October show they still have PFAS levels above the current national guidelines.
The ABC can reveal Sydney Water is upgrading the plant with a $3.5 million advanced mobile PFAS treatment system, designed to significantly reduce levels of PFAS in water.
“There’s no price you can put on making sure we have the most rigorous treatment in place,” NSW Water Minister Rose Jackson said.
Call for blood testing
Jon Dee, founder of Blue Mountains Stop PFAS Action Group, welcomed the move but continued calls for community blood testing to understand the scope of the issue.
“The government haven’t acted appropriately, they’ve gaslit the community, they’ve misled the community about the safety of their drinking water,” Mr Dee said.
“Our drinking water would be considered illegal in America because of the high levels of PFAS chemicals.”
Independent tests conducted by the group have identified the main source of PFAS as firefighting foam used on a petrol tank crash at Medlow Bath in 1992.
“The concern for us is how long were we exposed? How high were the levels that we were exposed to?” he said.
“It’s now looking like we could have been drinking this water for 32 years and that’s unacceptable.”
Mr Dee said requests to the NSW Health for community blood testing have gone unanswered.
First treatment results in 2025
It comes after the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) proposed new drinking water guidelines in October which recommended slashing PFAS levels in drinking water across Australia.
“We do take this seriously and we’ve put in short-term measures to mitigate elevated PFAS and we have long-term plans as well,” Ms Jackson said.
The NSW government has also committed to an $80 to $100 million plant upgrade that could come online about 2026-27.
Blue Mountains residents have criticised authorities for failing to protect them from the chemicals, and that testing of supplies only began following media pressure.
An investigation into the source of the PFAS is still ongoing and has not concluded whether firefighting foam used for car crashes on the nearby Great Western Highway or the Medlow Bath Rural Fire Service Station are contributors.
Forever chemicals are a family of about 14,000 PFAS known for their ability to repel oil, water and stains.
They are found in firefighting foams, pesticides, water-resistant clothing, cosmetic products and household items, such as non-stick pans.
The chemical make-up of the toxic substances means they can take hundreds or thousands of years to breakdown, and that they bioaccumulate.
Their strong carbon-fluorine bond makes them difficult and costly to remove, requiring specific treatments.
The mobile treatment system will be operational by the end of this year, with the first treatment results set to be available in early 2025.
Ms Jackson said it was a short-term solution they will deploy when they pick up elevated levels of PFAS in NSW.
“We will do things like identify alternative water sources, bring in mobile treatment, whatever we need to do to address that and get those PFAS levels down into what are the safe levels,” she said.
Cascade Water Filtration Plant is the only water source identified in Sydney as being of concern.
PFAS treatment an ‘evolving field’
Sydney Water’s mobile treatment system will use the most effective treatments developed to date — Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and ion exchange resin.
“While PFAS treatment is still an evolving field, we are leading the way with new ideas, such as this one, to ensure the continued delivery of world-class drinking water,” managing director Roch Cheroux said.
“GAC effectively adsorbs contaminants through its porous structure, while ion exchange resin swaps unwanted ions, such as PFAS, with safer ions, to significantly improve drinking water quality.”
Under the proposed NHMRC drinking water guidelines, treated water coming out of the Cascade plant would be considered unsafe, but the community is being assured the treatment system will fix that.
“That’s of concern to us because even though it’s within current guidelines we want to be making sure that we’re leaning towards the safest possible water,” Ms Jackson said.
Supplies at the plant are currently being topped up from Orchard Hills in Sydney and Oberon in the Central Tablelands.
There is no timeline for when the other two dams will be brought back online.
Ms Jackson said the government “stands ready” to partner with regional water utilities if they require mobile treatment systems.
But, she said, current testing by NSW Health had not identified any areas of concern.
20/8/24: Cascade WFP Blackheath NSW. PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ found in water filtration plants and platypus livers in NSW. Xanthe Gregory. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-20/australia-forever-chemicals-pfas-drinking-water-platypus/104244072
Cancer-linked “forever chemicals” have been detected at water filtration plants across Sydney, with authorities quietly releasing data about the level of man-made perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) in drinking sources.
Sydney Water has been monitoring additional water outlets since June this year and detected levels considered unsafe in the United States, which is seen as a world-leader for PFAS regulation.
The highest levels were detected in the Blue Mountains, at the Cascade Dam water filtration plants at Blackheath and Katoomba.
The US Environmental Protection Agency considers there is no safe level of PFAS in drinking water, due to health risks it presents to humans, but the Australian government guidelines state there is a safe level of exposure.
Health and water authorities have presented a united front following the findings, reiterating the city’s water is safe to drink and encouraged people to keep consuming it.
Sydney Water’s principal health adviser Kaye Power said “there’s no concern for us”.
“Sydney’s water is safe, and it meets those guidelines,” she said.
Dr Power said they had no new information that indicated there was a new threat and they simply tested because of the recent media coverage of PFAS.
NSW Health’s Jeremy McAnulty said the results were below the levels of concern.
But he could not rule out that an ongoing review of Australia’s drinking water guidelines may, in hindsight, find those levels are unsafe.
“We can’t pre-empt what the review will find,” Dr McAnulty said.
“We’re learning about a range of chemicals all the time as science comes in,” he said.
Blue Mountains sites to be tested monthly
At Blackheath, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which is a form of PFAS, was found at 0.0155 micrograms per litre (µg/L).
Another PFAS type, PFHxS, was found at 0.0136 µg/L, which is considered safe by Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
The highest detection was at Katoomba which showed 0.0164 PFOS µg/L and 0.0142 PFHxS µg/L when tested on June 25.
Higher results were also detected at North Richmond, which supplies more than 50,000 people.
The Cascade water filtration plant at Katoomba and Blackheath supplies drinking water to more than 30,000 people in the Blue Mountains, where the latest results show the chemical is at levels four times what authorities in America would be forced to remove it.
The chemicals have also been found at low levels in Warragamba, Prospect Reservoir and Orchard Hills.
It is the first time monitoring has occurred at eight of the nine plants, with monitoring previously taking place at North Richmond where PFAS, which was used at the nearby RAAF base, was detected in the drinking water back in 2019.
The sites in the Blue Mountains that returned the highest results will continue to be tested monthly out of precaution while the other plants will be tested annually.
Western Sydney University associate professor Dr Ian Wright said there is global uncertainty about these chemicals, so water authorities need to take a precautionary approach.
“We do need openness and transparency and this needs to be routine,” he said.
“There has been a lack of information provided and there’s been a growing concern about this particularly given what’s happening in the United States and contamination of many of their water supplies”.
Australia’s drinking water guidelines are currently under review, with a major focus on PFAS that is looking at relevant international guidance such as the US EPA to determine whether Australia’s guidelines are still appropriate.
The results of the review are expected to be released next year.
“When we see these sort of results there’s going to have to be quite a lot of explaining, what’s the hotspot and what measures can be taken to address this?” Dr Wright asked.
PFOS in platypuses raises exposure concerns
It comes as an Australian-first study has found PFOS in platypuses, sparking warnings people in New South Wales may be more exposed than once thought.
Scientists from Western Sydney University (WSU) have discovered PFOS in the livers of eight deceased platypuses collected from numerous eastern NSW rivers, from the north coast in Bellingen to the alps of Jindabyne.
The near-threatened monotremes were mostly collected from areas that are not known PFOS hotspots, fuelling concerns the chemicals are far more prevalent in Australia’s environment than previously understood.
Lead researcher and PhD candidate Katherine Warwick said the findings “shocked” her, considering the animals came from areas ranging from remote to urban, meaning there is pollution in those environments.
“Considering PFOS shouldn’t be there in the first place, it’s a lot,” Ms Warwick said.
“What that’s telling us is PFOS contamination is much more widespread than what we know.”
It is the first study of its kind on platypus and sheds light on yet another threat to a species already vulnerable to impacts associated with human activity.
The study reveals the Australian monotremes have PFOS levels similar to those found in river otters and lower than those in American mink, both of which live in similar freshwater environments.
Dr Wright said Americans use the mink and the river otter as sentinels.
“There is a growing literature from lab studies showing that there’s an absolute host of medical issues and disease that this can cause as the concentrations build up,” he said.
Numerous studies have found PFOS are toxic to humans and can have harmful health effects such as liver and thyroid diseases, and are linked to some cancers.
They are still found in everyday products such as non-stick pans and makeup.
Hotspots in Australia tend to be around Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bases where firefighting foam that contained the man-made chemical was widely used.
They leach from such products into water systems, causing contamination.
Because of their widespread use, they are found in the blood of people and animals across the world.
Species from Hunter River worst affected
All eight wild platypuses collected from NSW waterways over the past two and a half years returned results with concentrations of some PFOS in them, ranging from 4 micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg) to 1,200 µg/kg — some of the highest concentrations of any species in the world.
The study said there were currently no concentrations considered safe for platypus health, “however, draft guidelines by the Australian government suggest that exposure directly from their diet should not exceed 3.1 µg/kg of wet weight.”
The researchers did not choose the sites where the animals came from and were sent the carcasses by members of the public.
The worst-affected was found in the Hunter River in Morpeth, in the state’s Hunter region.
One platypus from the Ourimbah Creek on the Central Coast returned the second-highest results of 740 µg/kg.
That was followed by one from the Wingecaribee River at Berrima, at the top of Sydney’s drinking water catchment, with a PFOS liver concentration of 390 µg/kg.
The ninth platypus tested was the only one that virtually had none of the man-made chemical present in its liver.
It was living in filtered water in captivity at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.
As this latest study suggests, PFOS bioaccumulates, meaning organisms take in more of the chemicals than they excrete.
The research suggeststhe platypuses are consuming the chemicals through their diet, and through sediment on the bottom of the creeks and rivers whilst consuming macroinvertebrates or water bugs that may also be contaminated.
They foundthe larger the platypuses’ tails — an indication of fat and health — the higher the concentrations of PFOS.
Dr Wright said people may have more “skin in the game” than they think.
“It could be in our drinking water, it could be in the food we eat, it could be in the crops we grow,” Dr Wright said.
Platypuses are an apex predator in the food chain.
They are a sentinel species, meaning research on them can also provide insights for how environmental factors may affect humans.
“They’re known as the forever chemicals, and they haunt the environment and many aspects of biodiversity, but they also kind of potentially haunt us as well,” he said of PFOS.
It is not clear what the source of the chemicals were in those waterways the platypus came from.
“Following on from America, we’ve got a pretty good idea that it could come from things like treated sewerage, from landfill, from industrial discharges,” Dr Wright said.
“This is just part of the way on our journey to understanding these very, very dangerous chemicals,” he said.
Need to be ‘discussing ways to improve this’
Lead researcher Ms Warwick said one of the main things this work shed light on was that the “most unique species in the world” was extremely understudied.
“If we’re finding PFOS in their livers, then what else are they accumulating? And what is the impact that this is having on their abundance and distribution within New South Wales?” she asked.
“For this to be happening, I think, puts a lot of pressure on governments and managing bodies to actually be looking into this issue, and then to be discussing ways that we can improve this.”
All of the mammals they tested died of other causes, such as drowning from fishing gear and vehicle trauma, so it is not clear what impact the PFOS had on the health of the platypus.
“This is one of the big question marks that we have,” Ms Warwick said.
The next step, she said, was to find out what impacts the chemicals were having on the platypus and what that meant for their long-term survivability.
The researchers want governments to do more to clean up the “forever chemicals” from the state’s waterways.
“I don’t think we treat our rivers with the respect they deserve,” Dr Wright said.
“We really need to take every measure possible to keep out pollutants.”