Overview

• The upper house committee tabled 16 findings and 32 recommendations, concluding Sydney Water lacked due diligence before its June 2024 statement of “no known PFAS hotspots.”
• Subsequent testing found elevated PFAS in untreated water in the Blue Mountains, leading WaterNSW to disconnect Medlow and Greaves Creek dams as a precaution.
• Independent sampling reported by the Sydney Morning Herald detected some PFAS levels more than 50 times Australian drinking‑water standards in parts of the catchment.
• The committee cited failures in collaboration between state agencies and federal bodies, including Defence, and criticized regulatory responses such as delayed public warnings.
• Recommendations include regular PFAS monitoring across NSW, voluntary community blood testing in affected areas, review of drinking‑water guideline implementation, and a national phase‑out of non‑essential PFAS uses by 2030; the state government will respond by year’s end.