Hunter Water continues to supply safe drinking water

Hunter Water manages the Lower Hunter region’s ‘catchment-to-tap' water supply. For the last eight years, we have been monitoring our water supply for PFAS, and the results demonstrate that the drinking water we supply to our customers and community is safe.

Alongside other water authorities, we are reviewing the details in the updated draft guidelines released by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) today for community feedback.

A review of our historical water quality monitoring data for the region’s distribution network indicates that our drinking water complies with the proposed new PFAS guidelines and is safe to drink, whether we use the current or proposed future PFAS guidelines.

Hunter Water is committed – as we are always – to supplying high-quality safe drinking water that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). Our operating licence, issued by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), requires us to comply with the ADWG and IPART audits us each year to evaluate overall compliance with the operating licence.

Under our extensive water quality monitoring program Hunter Water routinely tests for PFAS in all our drinking water supply zones. We report all detections over 0.002 micrograms per litre, or 2 parts per trillion, which is our independent laboratory's limit of reporting. The testing program confirms that drinking water supplied by Hunter Water is safe and meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.