Lead contamination has forced City Hall to close more drinking fountains, with 80 now off limits to the public.
City Hall announced on Wednesday that completed testing had extended the closures beyond the 30 fountains turned off last week.
The detected lead levels were above the guidelines of the Federal Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council for Australian drinking water.
The City has engaged plumbers to turn off a number of public drinking fountains this week following the return of all test results,” City Hall said.
“The process of disabling fountains means that this could take up to a week to complete. Disabled public drinking fountains will be tagged as out of order.
A list of fountains with excessive lead levels was available at geelongaustralia.com.au/publicdrinkingfountains, City Hall said.
“It’s important to note that water supplied by Barwon Water is completely safe to drink.
“This is not an issue related to the quality of water supplied by Barwon Water. This is issue with public drinking fountain infrastructure.
“We have been working closely with public health experts at Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on this matter. People don’t need to worry if they’ve recently used a public drinking fountain in greater Geelong.”
City Hall said the Australian drinking water guidelines for lead were “very conservative” so they protected the most-vulnerable consumers such as young children and pregnant women.
“While the levels of lead detected are above the health guideline value in the … guidelines, they are not of immediate concern as drinking water fountains are not the main source of drinking water.
“We’re conducting a thorough investigation into this situation and are working with health and industry experts, including DHHS, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Barwon Water and the Victorian Building Authority to identify the cause of the lead found in our public drinking fountain water.”
