Council ensures drinking water is safe to drink through regular monitoring and testing. Water samples are collected every week from set locations at the treatment plant, reservoirs and town drinking water taps. These are tested by Council operators and independently by a National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited lab to ensure they comply with The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 2011 (ADWG).
Drinking Water Fact Sheet(PDF, 240KB)
The Annual Drinking Water Quality Report is produced to inform the community of the quality of the drinking water over the course of each year. Download the 2025 Report(PDF, 2MB)
Voluntary PFAS testing in the Mid-Western Region
What are PFAS?
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are human-made chemicals that have been widely used in everyday products since the mid-1900s. They are resistant to heat, stains, grease, and water, so they were often used in items like non-stick cookware, firefighting foams, water-repelling fabrics, cleaning products, and personal care products. However, PFAS do not easily break down, so they can remain in the environment for a long time.
PFAS Testing
In November 2024, Mid-Western Regional Council took part in the NSW Health program to test for PFAS in the region’s treated drinking water supply. Further rounds of sampling were conducted in May and November/December 2025.
The test results showed very low levels of PFAS in Mudgee and Gulgong. No PFAS were detected in Rylstone. These levels are significantly lower than the limits set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (version 4.0, updated June 2025).
Characteristic
ADWG guideline
Result (ng/L)
Mudgee
Gulgong
Rylstone
Nov
24
May
25
Dec
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
200 ng/L
0.3
<0.1
0.9
0.4
0.8
Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)
8 ng/L
0.7
0.2
1.6
Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS)
30 ng/L
1.3
Perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS)
1000 ng/L
<0.5