SA Water quizzed over family’s contaminated water ‘nightmare’
An SA Water boss was pressed in parliament today over reported drinking water with lead levels 46 times higher than national guidelines.
A family from Crystal Brook – a town about 29 kilometres from Port Pirie – have raised the alarm over 1940s-era lead pipes they believe have turned their drinking water yellow, with contamination levels far exceeding national guidelines.
A father of two young children who asked to remain anonymous told InDaily he had first raised concerns with SA Water in June. He called the months of looking for answers about his dirty water, which had recorded lead levels 46 times higher than national guidelines, “a nightmare”.
The man believes the lead levels were due to lead joints in their water main, and after escalating his complaint to the SA Ombudsman, the Ombudsman said SA Water “does not currently have plans to replace the main” and the case was closed.
“Our concern is SA Health said that the water’s still fine to drink, even though the lead levels are 46 times higher than what the recommended level should be,” he said, adding that the family had now installed a filter system.
“We’ve never been made aware that this is what our pipes are like, and there would be no doubt lots of other people in the state that have this old part. If we knew there were lead joints in this old pipe, we would have had a filter system in place sooner.”
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Liberal MLC Nicola Centofanti said she was in contact with the family and feared their tap water supply issues could be widespread across SA’s regions where lead-jointed pipes were common, saying SA Water should “ensure everyone in our state can pour a glass of water from their tap without worrying about how it’s affecting their health”.
A letter seen by InDaily from SA Water confirmed the family’s water exceeded the “aesthetic guideline limits” of manganese and iron, with 1.48 milligrams per litre of iron recorded compared to the guideline of 0.3 milligrams per litre.
“I would like to reassure you that excluding the identified mains events the baseline quality of your tap water supply is safe to drink, and this assessment has been confirmed by SA Health,” the letter sent to the family in August said.
SA Water also said it would conduct “intensive cleaning” of the water main in early September, flushing out sediment or debris that could have caused the elevated metal levels.
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Liberal MLC Ben Hood presented a bottled sample of the family’s water to SA Water boss David Ryan in parliament’s Budget and Finance committee on Monday morning, which was yellow and had particles floating in it.
“We are looking here at water that I would not expect my family to drink, and I don’t think, Mr Ryan, that you would expect your family to drink,” Hood said.
Ryan said he was unaware of this specific case or of any instances where SA Water had to report lead contamination exceeding water guidelines, but that he would look into the matter further.
“What I will say, if health is saying it’s safe from an Australian Drinking Water Guidelines perspective… the way water sometimes looks, what you might call aesthetics, isn’t always aligned from a safety perspective,” Ryan said.
Ryan said he was unaware of any instances where SA Water had to report lead contamination exceeding the water guidelines.
“We ensure every year we meet the Australian drinking water guidelines, and we report on that every month to our board in terms of how we’re going from a performance perspective,” Ryan said.
“The Department of Health oversees that, and then critically our performance is externally audited.”
Ryan will leave SA Water in December, after announcing in September he had accepted a new role as chief executive of Urban Utilities in Queensland starting in early 2027.
According to the SA Ombudsman’s report tabled in parliament last week, 38 complaints were made concerning SA Water across the state, about one per cent of all complaints received about state government departments.
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