PFAS and drinking water

PFAS are a group of human-made chemicals known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances that have been widely used in industrial and consumer products since the mid-1900s.

While, they have unique physical and chemical properties that make them very good at resisting heat, stains, grease, and water, they are very difficult to destroy and do not easily break down in the environment.

PFAS chemicals are not added to Canberra’s drinking water.

PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are chemicals that are found in hundreds of everyday household and industrial products. This includes some sunscreens, cosmetics, clothing, carpet, non-stick frying pans, paint, dental floss, food packaging, feminine hygiene products and fire-fighting foams.

PFAS is not manufactured in Australia. The Federal Government has also banned the importation of some PFAS chemicals into the country by July 2025 – including everyday products that contain PFAS.   

These chemicals are hard to break down and have been found in environments around the world, including locations within Australia.

We maintain relationships with land managers and the community in proximity to our catchments to help protect the source water from these types of contaminants. We also work with the ACT Environment Protection Agency, ACT Health and local industry as part of our water quality management. 

We maintain a precautionary approach, staying abreast of the science and testing our source water as early as 2016 and our final treated drinking water in 2024.

Our testing is conducted by an independent, National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited laboratory. The laboratory methodology and instrumentation can currently detect down to the equivalent of one drop in ten Olympic swimming pools worth of water.

In Canberra, ‘source water’ is the water in our dams and at our collection location on the Murrumbidgee river. ‘Raw water’ is the water that arrives from the source at our plant before it is treated. ‘Final treated water’ is what is put into the network of pipes that lead to your local reservoir where water is temporarily stored before it is supplied through your water meter. The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines only apply to final treated water supplied for drinking.

There have been no detections of PFAS in our final treated water at our Stromlo Water Treatment Plant or Googong Water Treatment Plant.

While current testing has not detected PFAS in treated water supplied into the network, we remain vigilant given its global prevalence, and will continue to report testing data to regulators and the community.

Yes. Water supplied across Canberra and Queanbeyan is tested for up to 177 parameters. We typically receive over 37,000 test results per year. In 2023-24, 100% of applicable test results were compliant with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) health values.  

The safe amount of PFAS in the ADWG is determined by the independent National Health and Medical Research Council looking at PFAS exposure over your whole life, and not a single day.

Our latest Drinking Water Quality Report can be found here.

In some of our earlier testing, we had a couple of detections (well below the ADWG limits) that were not detected in subsequent testing.

On 13 June testing of untreated source water (dams and rivers) returned ultra-low results for one type of PFAS in some locations.

The samples taken on this day were collected across several catchments by an individual sample collector. The results, despite the environments being far apart, were essentially identical. This would be a very unusual occurrence in nature. Given how prevalent PFAS is in products such as clothing, lids, and protective equipment, a more likely explanation for the results would be a contamination during collection. Follow-up testing done by the independent laboratory did not detect any PFAS in samples from those catchments. We have further expanded our protocols to take field and testing equipment blanks. We have also updated guidance for sampling which includes not washing hair 24 hours before, not wearing sunscreen or cosmetics and restricting the types of clothing and equipment samplers can use and wear.

For more information, please visit Water Services Association of Australia website. You can read more about the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines on the NHMRC website.

The current methodology applied by Icon Water’s independent accredited laboratory is already testing to below the proposed new limits. We have had no detections for any type of PFAS chemicals tested in final drinking water including PFBS.