Drinking Water Supply

Council is committed to providing the community of Bathurst with consistently high-quality and safe drinking water. To learn more about Bathurst’s water supply system, view the virtual tour below.

Your Drinking Water at a Glance

Catchment

Water is sourced from the Macquarie Wambuul River at the Water Filtration Plant in Gorman’s Hill. Upstream, the Macquarie Wambuul River is fed from the Fish and Campbells Rivers. Chifley Dam, located on the Campbells River, is the primary drinking water storage for Bathurst.

Treatment

Council’s dedicated Water Filtration Plant treats the raw (river) water to drinking water standards. This conventional treatment includes a number of process steps, including:

  • Carbon Adsorption
  • Coagulation and Flocculation
  • Sedimentation
  • Filtration
  • Disinfection
  • Fluoridation
  • pH adjustment
Distribution

Once treated, drinking water is distributed to the Bathurst community through a distribution network consisting of pipes, pump stations, and reservoirs.

 

Virtual Tour – Bathurst Drinking Water Supply

To join a virtual tour showcasing the source of Bathurst's drinking water, how water is managed by Council and then distributed to homes and businesses across the region, see below:

Water Quality Monitoring

Water Quality Monitoring

Council undertakes extensive sampling, monitoring and water testing on a regular basis throughout the entire water supply system. These activities help ensure that the water supplied to the community of Bathurst meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. 

For the 2023/2024 year (1/07/2023 – 30/06/2024), Bathurst Regional Council continued to perform routine drinking water sampling. The results were submitted to the NSW Drinking Water Database.

Compliance is determined against the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (2011) guideline values for E. coli, physical and chemical characteristics of drinking water.

Both the Bathurst supply and Chifley Dam supply achieved compliance of 100% for physical, 100% for chemical, and 100% for microbiological samples in this period.

Data presented below are sourced through the Performance Comparison Report from the NSW Health Drinking Water Database.

Water Quality Compliance - Bathurst

Sample Type  Sample Count 

Number of Characteristics 

 Number of Non-Compliant Samples  Compliance (%) 
 Physical  12  60  0  100 
 Chemical 12   228  0  100
 Microbiological 264   264  0  100

 

Water Quality Compliance - Chifley Dam*

Sample Type Sample Count

Number of Characteristics

 Number of Non-Compliant Samples Compliance (%)
Physical 2 10 0 100
Chemical 2 38 0 100
Microbiological 12 12 0 100

 

*Drinking water provided at Chifley Dam is currently delivered to site from the Bathurst supply.

PFAS Monitoring

In partnership with NSW Health, Council has sampled raw (river) and treated drinking water at the Water Filtration Plant. The samples were sent to an external NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accredited laboratory for analysis.

There was no PFAS detected in these raw (river) and treated drinking water samples.

Treated Drinking Water Results

Date Location    PFBS   PFHxS PFOS  PFOA 
Current ADWG Guideline (ng/L)  1000 30   8  200
 12/05/2025 Water Filtration Plant   <1 ng/L <1 ng/L <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L
 20/11/2024 Water Filtration Plant   <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L 

1 ng/L = 1 nanogram per litre = 1 part per trillion

 

Raw Water (River) Results

Date Location PFBS PFHxS PFOS PFOA
Current ADWG Guideline (ng/L) n/a 70* 70* 560
Proposed ADWG Guideline (ng/L) 1000 30 4 200
12/05/2025 Macquarie River (at Water Filtration Plant) <1 ng/L <1 ng/L <1 ng/L <1 ng/L
12/05/2025 Fish River <1 ng/L <1 ng/L <1 ng/L <1 ng/L
 12/05/2025  Campbells River    <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L  <1 ng/L

For more information on PFAS, visit the Water Services Association of Australia PFAS Resources web page.

 

 

 

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