Ilarwill (NSW)
“… As an example of the presence of PFAS in domestic sewage sources, in 2018 Council detected PFAS in sewage biosolids when decommissioning a thirty- year-old sewage treatment pond servicing 36 residential properties (i.e. no commercial or industrial properties) via a common effluent drainage system at the village of Ilarwill. As a common effluent drainage system, the household sewage was treated by septic tanks before reaching the pond, with the septage in the septic tanks being pumped out every few years and transported to other STPs. The only source of the PFAS found in the Ilarwill pond was domestic sewage which had not settled in the septic tanks. Prior to decommissioning this STP discharged to the Clarence River and so was a potential source of waterway PFAS contamination.
While the levels of PFAS Council has detected in its sewage biosolids is very low, LWUs are unable to control PFAS received at their STPs and have no way of managing PFAS from on site effluent disposal systems. Clarence Valley Council currently operates six STPs which have licences for environmental
release of treated effluent to waterways, and the effluent discharged from each STP to waterways is a potential source of low levels of PFAS. Council is also proposing municipal recycled water reuse on sporting fields and golf courses, and there are public perception concerns if the recycled water contains PFAS.
Submission by Clarence Valley Council to INQUIRY INTO PFAS CONTAMINATION IN WATERWAYS AND DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES THROUGHOUT NEW SOUTH WALES November 2024