Blue Mountains

We take dams offline for operational reasons routinely as required.

We modify system configuration often in Greater Sydney for various reasons. WaterNSW dams can be isolated for maintenance and that is what makes the system quite resilient and flexible, allowing us to maintain water supply as conditions change.

For example, we’ve taken Warragamba Dam offline during large inflow events (or bushfires) to manage water quality.

These results reflect the untreated, raw source water in WaterNSW’s dams. This water is not supplied directly for use as drinking water, but is supplied to Sydney Water for treatment at the Cascades Water Filtration Plant.

For drinking water results, please visit Sydney Water.

These results reflect the untreated, raw source water in WaterNSW’s dams. This water is not supplied directly for use as drinking water, but is supplied to Sydney Water for treatment at the Cascades Water Filtration Plant.

For drinking water results, please visit Sydney Water.

Sydney Water and NSW Health have advised Sydney’s drinking water is compliant with the existing Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) and is safe to drink. For NSW Government information on PFAS visit www.nsw.gov.au/pfas.

For most people, drinking water is sourced from well-protected, often pristine catchments, and water goes through multiple levels of testing to ensure it is safe and meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

WaterNSW supplies untreated water, sometimes described as 'raw water' or 'source water', to Sydney Water and councils around NSW who then treat and supply the water to your tap. The Fish River Water Supply System is an exception. This process of testing and treating the ‘source water’ we supply is rigorous, ensuring that drinking water that comes out of your tap is safe and meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

The thorough scientific process for setting the guidelines helps maintain high quality drinking water for all Australians. Australia has some of the highest quality drinking water compared to anywhere else in the world.

Sydney’s drinking water catchment is 16,000 square kilometres – about half the size of Belgium.

Water quality monitoring across the catchment follows a targeted, risk-based approach to help ensure the treated water supplied for consumption meets the existing Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Consistent with the government regulatory frameworks, the approach is based on expert advice from NSW Health and other authorities such as the Environment Protection Authority.

WaterNSW monitors many water quality parameters over a very large area across the Greater Sydney catchment and dams. This includes extensive water testing and real time monitoring 24/7. Each month thousands of data points are collected and evaluated continually for the management of source water quality.

When testing for PFAS, WaterNSW takes a targeted, risk-based approach, based on based on expert advice from NSW Health and other authorities such as the Environment Protection Authority.

WaterNSW has highly-experienced field staff and expert water quality scientists undertaking sampling and analysis.

Sampling, collection and transport are conducted by highly-skilled professionals with strict protocols in place. Our partner labs have detailed steps that must be followed to ensure accurate analysis of our samples. This is essential to ensure that samples are not contaminated by everyday items that contain PFAS such as outdoor clothing, makeup, and sunscreen. Our monitoring teams are ISO 9001 certified, and all partner laboratories are NATA accredited.

WaterNSW is a highly regulated organisation and subject to extensive external regulatory oversight. This ensures WaterNSW’s work in this field is meticulous and meets the highest standard. WaterNSW has an extensive water quality monitoring program and is one of the leading agencies when it comes to water quality monitoring in NSW.