Environmental conservation group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has released a report investigating the risks and impacts associated with pesticides in Melbourne’s drinking supply. The report focuses on the city’s Sugarloaf Reservoir, which supplies 1.5 million Melbournians, which, according to the FoE, has recorded 31 positive pesticide samples.

  

The report found herbicides Atrazine and Simazine both being detected above European Guideline levels and levels which have been determined to impact on hormones.

 

An independent study published in 2011 also found more than 40 pesticides in the Yarra River catchment upstream of the offtake to Sugarloaf Reservoir, many of which were at levels that may impact on the ecology of the river.



“This is a real concern, not only for the people drinking the water, but also for the ecological health of the Yarra itself” said FoE spokesperson Anthony Amis.

 

“The Yarra should not be treated like an agricultural drain, it has unique attributes that require urgent protection measures. Possibly no other river in Australia has had as many pesticides detected in it, as the Yarra has in the past few years.

 

“Our fear is that pesticides may have been pumped from the Yarra River since 1980, yet the treatment plant has not had the capacity to properly filter out these residues. Of particular concern would have also been the insecticide Dieldrin commonly used in the 1980's.”