MELBOURNE Water has labelled a report claiming one of the city’s biggest sources of drinking water has unacceptable levels of pesticides “alarmist”.
Friends of the Earth investigated pesticide levels in the Sugarloaf Reservoir, which supplies drinking water for about 1.5 million Melburnians in the north and west of the city.
The report states that since 2008, there have been 31 positive pesticide samples from the Yarra River, which supplies water to the reservoir, in the Christmas Hills.
In March 2011, 0.026 micrograms per litre of the pesticide Simazine was detected and although it was within the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines of 20 micrograms per litre, , FoE spokesman Anthony Amis said the levels were still potentially harmful.
The report also states that the filtration process for the reservoir, the Winneke Treatment Plant, was not designed to filter out pesticides.
Mr Amis said the results were concerning for people’s health and the river’s ecological health.
“The Yarra should not be treated like an agricultural drain; it has unique attributes that require urgent protection measures,” he said.
But Melbourne Water’s general manager of asset planning, Paul Pretto, said Friends of the Earth had misinterpreted the testing data.
“We are very concerned at this alarmist interpretation of our own data … all drinking water we supply has to meet very strict health guidelines,” he said. “At no stage have pesticides been detected above the recommended health limits.”
He added that water monitoring results are shared with the Department of Health and met the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Mr Amis said that had the same results been found in Europe, they would have breached European Union guidelines.
“What actually is alarming is that through our research, we’ve discovered there has been very little pesticide testing for 30 years.”
The Minister for Water, Peter Walsh, did not respond to a request for comment.
