Council receives update on PFAS water projects

Published on 27 July 2026

Council’s Infrastructure Team continues to work on short, medium and long-term strategies to secure Narrabri’s water supply, as reported to this month’s Council Meeting.

Council’s Director Infrastructure Warren Faulkner provided Councillors and the community with a PFAS update at the July Ordinary Council Meeting, outlining the current status of water projects.

In discussing the temporary water treatment plant, Mr Faulkner explained the cost to treat the water supply significantly exceeded the funded amount received. Therefore, the temporary plant would instead treat the PFAS-affected Killarney Bore only.

“We are getting some firmed-up estimates on what the cost is to just run off the PFAS contaminated bore,” Mr Faulkner said.

“I’m pretty confident [the cost] will require us to go back to the Minister to request some further funding to be able to bring that bore back online.”

In providing an update around the Saleyards Bore, Mr Faulkner said the water quality of the bore may require additional treatment before it’s added to the Narrabri water supply.

“We are now approaching the NSW Health Department to find out what that may mean and look like,” he said.

Speaking at the meeting, Mayor Darrell Tiemens highlighted the difficulty of bringing the additional water supplies online.

“It is such a tricky thing we are doing. Because not only are we dealing with very strict water standards, but we’re also dealing with multiple layers of government, multiple departments and multiple water standards, etcetera.”

In response to a query from Cr Ethan Towns, Mr Faulkner outlined the costs for both a temporary water treatment plant as well as a permanent water treatment plant.

“The pre-construction estimate on 120 litres per second for a temporary water treatment plant to go into our reservoirs was $12 million,” he said.

“A permanent water supply treatment plant to treat six megalitres per day, peak production, would be in the order of $30 million to $40 million.”

Mayor Tiemens also asked about the ongoing costs of running a treatment plant.

“The PFAS that comes out is still a contaminated material that needs to be disposed of. We cannot dispose of it to the tip. It has to be incinerated or taken to a facility in Queensland,” Mr Faulkner explained.

He added that the high iron and manganese levels also required additional filtering costs.  

“If we don’t take that iron and manganese out before it goes through the filters, we can expect that by running 120 litres per second through it, it is in the order of $300,000 a year operating costs. For all three bores.

“If we do take out the iron and manganese beforehand, it’s probably in the order of $100,000. But you still have to include in the cost of taking out the iron and manganese.”

General Manager Eloise Chaplain said Council’s Infrastructure Team was working hard on reviewing short, medium and long-term strategies.

“As soon as we have the rest of the figures, the rest of the strategies determined, essentially different options that we can do, different costings connected to each – what it means upfront, what it means ongoing – we’ll present that to Councillors.”

Mayor Tiemens said he would re-approach the Minister regarding the PFAS issue and additional infrastructure costs required, emphasising that it “shouldn’t be something that’s borne by the ratepayers.”

In seconding the motion noting the information report, Cr Ryan Whillas highlighted that Council had contingency plans in place.

“I just want to let the community be assured that even though we have had hurdles thrown at us that we weren’t expecting with some of our plans, we do have other plans in place and contingencies to go on.”

Cr Jocelyn Jansson also emphasised that ratepayers should not be responsible for the cost.

“Just to put on the record that the Minister did say that we should not be out of pocket in dealing with this,” Cr Jansson said.

“Even though we’ll have the annual operating costs to deal with, the actual, initial cost of set up and implementation was not to be borne by us.”