Drinking water quality in Tumut Shire, Australia

Indicator: Drinking water quality

| Indicator description | Complete list of Indicators |

What the results tell us for Tumut

See also: | Water supply | Raw water treatment |

Drinking water quality throughout most of Tumut Shire was of a very good standard during the reporting period, particularly at Tumut and Adelong where all samples met National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines for bacteriological, chemical and pesticide contamination (Table 1).

At Batlow, Talbingo and Brungle, while all pesticide samples were within guidelines, some bacteriological samples and all chemical samples failed to meet the guidelines. Drinking water quality in these centres has appeared to decrease over the current recording period, and in comparison with the previous recording period. However, there were no days when Council required water to be boiled.

Rainfall patterns have varied significantly over the last few years. Heavy rain patterns can result in water run-off from previously unexposed soil, carrying metal ion contaminants, such as those of iron, into the water body. Reasons for variations in water quality may become more obvious if intense heavy rain events (and when they occurred) were noted at the same time as water samples are taken.

Table 1. Proportion of tap-water samples meeting the relevant guidelines for drinking water quality from 1997–98 to 1999–2000, Tumut Shire
	1997–98			1998–99			1999–2000
Location/ Test	Samples (No.)	Failures (No.)	Success rate (%)	Samples (No.)	Failures (No.)	Success rate (%)	Samples (No.)	Failures (No.)	Success rate (%)
Tumut
Bacteriological	12	0	100	12	0	100	12	0	100
Pesticide	1	0	100	1	0	100	2	0	100
Chemical	1	0	100	2	0	100	2	0	100
Adelong
Bacteriological	12	0	100	12	1	92	12	0	100
Pesticide	1	0	100	1	0	100	1	0	100
Chemical	1	0	100	2	0	100	2	0	100
Batlow
Bacteriological	12	1	92	12	1	92	12	0	100
Pesticide	1	0	100	1	0	100	2	0	100
Chemical	1	1	0	2	2	0	2	2	0
Talbingo
Bacteriological	12	0	100	12	1	92	12	0	100
Pesticide	1	0	100	1	0	100	1	0	100
Chemical	1	1	0	2	2	0	1	1	0
Brungle
Bacteriological	12	1	92	12	1	92	12	0	100
Pesticide	1	0	100	1	0	100	1	0	100
Chemical	1	1	0	2	2	0	2	2	0
Number of days when water is required to be boiled	0			0			0

* failure was on iron and was not health related

About the data

Data were provided by Tumut Shire Council. Water samples are collected by Council and tested by approved laboratories on a monthly basis for bacteriological contamination, six monthly for chemical analyses and annually for pesticides. Additional testing is undertaken in response to failures or complaints.

More details about the data follow:

Title	Drinking Water Quality
Custodian	Tumut Shire Council
Jurisdiction	NSW
Abstract	Results of drinking water quality testing program
Search Word(s)	Drinking water quality
Geographic Extent Name(s)	Tumut Shire
OR
Geographic Extent Polygon(s)	Not applicable
Beginning date	Unknown
Ending date	Current
Progress	In progress
Maintenance and update frequency	Monthly - bacteriological and physical & chemical 6monthly
Stored Data Format	Digital data held on Microsoft Excel and hard copy
Available format types	Digital Microsoft Excel & access- and hard copy(original)
Access constraints:	Only available through the Shire offices
Lineage:	Data collected by council staff and sent to the NSW Department of Health, Division of Analytical Laboratories in Lidcombe, Sydney for analysis.
Positional accuracy:	Not applicable
Attribute accuracy:	This information is taken and sent to approved laboratories for testing.
Logical consistency:	Not applicable
Completeness	Not applicable
Contact organisation:	Tumut Shire Council
Contact position:	Manager Assets
Mail address 1:	76 Capper Street
Suburb or Place or Locality	Tumut
State or Locality 2	NSW
Country:	Australia
Postcode:	2720
Telephone:	69470524
Facsimile:	69473999
Electronic mail address:	jmaxwell@tumut.nsw.gov.au
Metadata Date	03-Feb-00
Additional Metadata

Description: What does 'drinking water quality' measure?

Which data are collected?

proportion of tapwater samples meeting the relevant guidelines for drinking water quality
number of days when water is required to be boiled

Why do we report this indicator?

The quality of water intended for human consumption is of fundamental importance to human health concerns and for that reason it is of interest to State of the Environment reporting. In Australia, raw water intended for drinking is generally treated to remove high levels of contaminants such as salts and other pollutants, sediment, and pathogens.

Despite the relatively high quality of Australian drinking water, there are still concerns. Residents of some human settlements complain of high levels of chlorine and other additives, others complain of insufficient treatment due to high levels of salt or sediment remaining in the treated water supply - not uncommon in waters drawn from severely degraded catchments, or from saline or contaminated groundwaters.

Water is considered to be safe to drink when levels of bacteria, chemicals and pesticides do not exceed do not exceed Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.