Repeat monitoring samples for Jamieson and Shipley Reservoirs
The Blue Mountains water network is complex and covers a large area. To ensure that water from the Cascade Water Filtration Plant reaches the entire network, we've started additional monitoring.
In April 2025, we conducted a more detailed and targeted PFAS monitoring program across locations in the Blue Mountains as part of our commitment to water quality.
Jamieson and Shipley Reservoirs, which are only used intermittently and provide very limited supply to customers, returned results that met all current Guideline PFAS values. However, results exceeded the proposed new Guideline value for PFOS.
Best practice is to repeat a sample if a test result is not typical, so we collected repeat samples. The PFOS result for Shipley Reservoir was slightly lower than the first sample. The PFOS result for Jamieson Reservoir was higher than the first sample, but still within the current Guidelines. It's not unusual to have some variability between sample results.
Despite the current Guidelines' requirements being met, and to address customer and community concerns, we've isolated both reservoirs from the network while we clean and perform maintenance. As part of this process, we will also test any sediment removed. It will then be classified according to the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) waste classification and disposed of accordingly.
Test results for the Blue Mountains water supply network (28 KB, XLSX) were taken on 7 and 15 April 2025.