Drinking water quality

The City of Coffs Harbour is committed to providing safe, high quality drinking water that consistently meets the requirements of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). 

The high quality of our drinking water is achieved through best practice water quality management. This begins with catchment management and continues throughout the water treatment process and distribution system. The City’s multi-barrier approach involves:

  • The protection, strategic rehabilitation and controlled abstraction from the sources of our drinking water, the Orara and Nymboida River.
  • The filtration and disinfection of our drinking water at Karangi Water Treatment Plant. More information can be found here.
  • The maintenance of residual disinfection throughout the water supply to ensure re-contamination does not occur before the drinking water reaches your home.

Drinking water quality test results

Water quality is monitored continuously at Karangi Water Treatment Plant. Our drinking water is also tested for an extensive list of chemical, physical and microbiological parameters on a weekly basis.

NSW Health arrange for water samples to be taken at 32 sites across the local government area each month. The samples are tested by an accredited laboratory to ensure they meet the Australian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines.

Water quality results are published each month and can be reviewed here: December Water Quality Results(PDF, 88KB)

The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines include health-based and aesthetic guideline values.

Health Guidelines

Health guidelines define what is safe to drink. The ADWG has set acceptable levels for water quality characteristics that have the potential to impact health.

This relates, for example, to the presence of chlorine and fluoride in the drinking water supply. Our drinking water consistently meets the health guidelines set by the ADWG, delivering the benefits of disinfection (chlorine) and the prevention of tooth decay (fluoride) without the risk of adverse health impacts. 

Heavy metals such as iron, manganese, lead and copper are also monitored by the City to ensure they fall within the health guidelines set by the ADWG.

Aesthetic Guidelines

Aesthetic guidelines relate to the appearance, taste and odour of drinking water. Aesthetic water quality characteristics include true colour, turbidity, hardness, total dissolved solids and pH.

These characteristics are useful indicators of water quality. However, they do not necessarily indicate that the water is unsafe to drink.

PFAS – Perfluoroalkyl or Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

In accordance with the recommendation from NSW Health, the City has undertaken initial screenings for PFAS. The results of these tests can be found in the monthly water quality results report.

What is PFAS?

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals found in a variety of products, including fire-fighting foam. Further information can be found here.

Where to get your water tested

The Coffs Harbour Laboratory is a NATA accredited market leader in providing chemical and microbiological analysis of drinking water, effluents, bore water, tank water, pools and environmental waters.  

Back to top