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Water quality monitoring program

Sampling aquatic life at
Leura Falls, Blue Mountains
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Water is tested for Cryptosporidium and Giardia according to a monitoring plan agreed to by NSW Health.

Sydney Water and Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) have instituted many changes since 1998 to improve the performance and reliability of water supply management of drinking water quality.

One of the recommendations of the McClellan Inquiry was to reassess after six months the Cryptosporidium and Giardia water quality monitoring program initiated in 1998. Over two years of water quality data has now been collected and the program has been reviewed to better focus on those areas with a risk of contamination.

The SCA's detailed risk assessment has recommended focussing on an approach which identifies and rectifies sources of risk rather than simply measuring and reporting water quality.

As a result, Sydney Water and the SCA, with the support of the independent Expert Panel and endorsement by NSW Health, have modified the monitoring program in the following ways:

Under the SCA's "hot spot" monitoring program, more monitoring in the catchments at points where there are greater risks of contamination
continuous monitoring of other water quality characteristics that can provide early indication of the presence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia
"event" monitoring on sites leading into Lake Burragorang during storms or other events that cause a rise in stream water levels and could influence water quality
continuation of monitoring of treated water for Cryptosporidium and Giardia at Warragamba, Orchard Hills and Prospect Water Filtration Plants six days a week.

Weekly monitoring of water sourced from storages other than Warragamba Dam, which are low risk. These actions support the objectives of the Sydney Water 5 Year Drinking Water Quality Management Plan, as endorsed by NSW Health. These actions are consistent with the Cryptosporidium and Giardia fact sheets in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

Savings generated by the revised program will be better allocated to protect public health by identifying possible sources of risk, improved catchment and reservoir management and water treatment and distribution.

Sydney Water is committed to ensuring that its customers are kept informed about the quality of their drinking water. Water quality reports provide detailed information to water consumers so that they can be confident about the quality of their water.

Streamwatch

Streamwatch is a long-term water monitoring program that Sydney Water has been running in partnership with the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA). The program supports local communities and schools across Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra and Southern Highland regions. Streamwatch groups investigate and take action on water quality and catchment and ecosystem health.

Streamwatch began in 1990. There are now over 250 community, school and other groups that monitor water quality and macroinvertebrates (water bugs) across more than 600 sites. Streamwatch is closely connected with NSW Waterwatch.

Streamwatch can help evaluate the positive impacts of remediation projects and identify local issues so that action can be taken. Streamwatch data also provides an early warning system for pollution events and a historical record of how waterways have changed.

The data and other information gathered by Streamwatch groups is available on the Streamwatch website. It is very useful to local councils, catchment management authorities, landowners and other land managers.

The program has strong quality assurance elements built in so that results are technically sound, reliable and useful.

For more information visit the Streamwatch website.