Bendemeer bore water uranium free, Tamworth council declares

In 2016, it was discovered the water from the town’s bore, along with a bore that supplied Kootingal and Moonbi, had high levels of naturally-occurring uranium.

The raw-untreated water from Airlie Road bore – which is used as the town’s secondary water supply when the Macdonald River is running dry – contained an average of 0.055 mg/L of uranium, or more than three times the standard set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

However, the resin filter reduces it to 0.001mg/L, the lowest detection limit for uranium.

Tamworth Regional Council water director Bruce Logan said the outcome was great news for Bendemeer residents.

“Council was confident this solution to a naturally-occurring issue would be highly effective,” Mr Logan said. 

“The results are well below the Australian Drinking Water Guideline for uranium of 0.017mg/L.”

The resin filter was installed in September last year. The treated water was tested for 12 weeks and not used in the reticulation system connected to Bendemeer homes.

Mr Logan said given similar issues with naturally-occurring uranium in the groundwater feeding the Moonbi-Kootingal water supply, a solution for the long term would be presented to council in the next couple of months.

In August 2016, the two villages were switched to the Tamworth water supply, when council realised one bore had shown high levels of uranium for at least two years.

At the time, council was criticised for not telling residents about the discovery until The Leader learnt of the contamination in September.

In the fallout, council disciplined the staff who had been testing the water and failed to recognise the contamination, and spent $21,600 on new software to prevent future oversights in its testing regime.