Cancer-linked ‘forever chemicals’ detected in Sydney water catchments
Photo: SJU
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All part of the plan?
‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’ DETECTED
Sydney Water has confirmed for the first time that cancer-linked “forever chemicals” have been detected across the city’s drinking water catchments.
In quietly releasing data on its website, Sydney Water revealed that PFAS chemicals were detected in June at ‘low levels’ in key water filtration plants, including Warragamba, Prospect Reservoir and Orchard Hills.
The chemical was also found in higher levels at the Cascade Dam in the Blue Mountains and North Richmond.
Sydney Water’s long-held position on monitoring drinking water to date has been there are “no known PFAS hotspots in our drinking water catchments”, and the government has previously rejected the need for routine tap water monitoring.
The results show PFAS concentrations in the Sydney catchment are within Australia’s drinking water guidelines, but above U.S. safety thresholds. Which shows you how bad we are.
Australia’s guidelines have been under review after the U.S. EPA’s dramatic policy shift in April deemed the chemicals were probable carcinogens and found there was no safe level of exposure.
Dr Nicholas Chartres, a senior research fellow from the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health, said he was concerned the review of Australia’s drinking water guidelines could take months or years to be finalised.
“There needs to be more urgency,” he said.
“This is a symbolic representation of a lot of environmental health threats where the benefit of doubt is given to the polluter, and the public pays the consequences of that.”
He said the U.S. EPA’s evaluations were the most rigorous conducted on PFAS and had canvassed at least 130 new epidemiological studies published since Australia’s guidelines were finalised in 2018.
Asked about the results, a Sydney Water spokesperson revealed an apparent change in policy that states it now conducts “..monthly monitoring in potentially impacted areas”.
It did not detail where.
Ian Wright, a water pollution researcher at the University of Western Sydney, said in response to the release: “I expect that these results will be quite confronting to many people.”
Sydney Water conducted tests just a year after TOTT News revealed evidence of past contamination of Sydney’s tap water and the lack of widespread routine monitoring for the chemicals.
Could this all be part of the larger agenda all along?
WATER ‘CRISIS’ COMING
Pressure continues to mount for an official inquiry into PFAS in Australia.
So far, the only inquiry that has been conducted has been for the chemicals around defence bases.
New research conducted also showed for the first time high levels of PFAS in wildlife such as platypuses, and in areas of Sydney’s drinking water catchment where there are no known PFAS hotspots, suggesting the chemicals have spread.
Sydney Water said that “all samples tested are well below [Australian drinking water] guidelines” … and “monitoring of drinking water uses a risk-based approach”.
“There is regular consultation between Sydney Water, WaterNSW and NSW Health to assess any potential risk of PFAS or any other contaminant to Sydney’s drinking supply.”
PFAS chemicals, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been used for decades to make products resistant to heat, stains, grease and water and have been a billion-dollar industrial powerhouse for Wall Street giant 3M.
