Sydney Water failed to properly test before declaring ‘no known Pfas hotspots’ in catchments, inquiry finds

Sydney Water did not perform “an appropriate level of due diligence” before claiming there were no known Pfas hotspots within its drinking water catchments, a state parliamentary committee has found.

The New South Wales upper house committee tabled its 16 findings and 32 recommendations on Thursday following an inquiry triggered by reporting in the Sydney Morning Herald that detected elevated levels of some “forever chemicals” in parts of Sydney’s drinking water catchment.

Pfas (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a group of several thousand synthetic compounds, are found in a wide variety of products including waterproof fabrics, food packaging, hygiene products and firefighting foam. They are sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are slow to break down and p