Early results from the additional testing of three bores at Warialda have now been received by Gwydir Shire Council.
Encouragingly, the samples collected from the Saleyard and Gragin Road bores had no detectable levels of PFAS, with town water supply now to be sourced solely from these bores which will provide PFAS free water to the Town, however the bore at Hospital Park was detected as having significant levels of PFAS and has now been isolated and disconnected from the water supply indefinitely.
Gwydir Shire Mayor Tiffany Galvin, General Manager Max Eastcott and Member for Northern Tablelands Brendan Moylan met with Senior Council Staff and representatives from NSW Health on Friday evening to put a plan in place to secure safe drinking water for the Town, including pipe flushing to assist in removing any residual PFAS from the system, as well as introduce water restrictions for the next 5 days which include no fixed sprinklers to be used, instead only hand-held hoses are permitted.
Additional bores will be tested from early this week and will not be used until results are available.
The advice from NSW Health remains unchanged, wit drinking town water in Warialda in the short term unlikely to pose a health risk for residents, however, bottled water is still available for people who would prefer to use this for cooking and drinking while the pipes are flushed and the testing on the offline bores continues.
