Original source (on modern site)
James Ryan moved into his Karragullen home in the Perth Hills during September 2023 on the understanding that all his water would be supplied by a bore on his property. "The bore at the time seemed to be working okay. It was set on a timer to start up at nine o'clock every evening and it would fill the 10,000 litre tank overnight," Mr Ryan told ABC Radio Perth's Nadia Mitsopoulos. "It would be full in the morning, so we had no problem with water supply and that was one of the attractions in buying that house." By late December, however, he noticed the tank was not full every morning and called a technician to check on the pump. "He said, 'The pump's fine. The problem is your water table is very low'," Mr Ryan said. "Whatever water is in there is going to be sucked out within a couple of minutes and then it's just going to have to wait to replenish itself. "We persevered with that for a while and by February we just gave up. I wasn't even bothering to start the pump so we're having to get water trucked in." Mr Ryan now pays for 10,000-litre truckloads of water to fill his tank. Mr Ryan put his water shortage down to the record dry spell Perth has experienced since October 2023, but was dismayed to learn that just down the road, at another residential property, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) was licenced to draw up to 15 truckloads of water from the ground a week, each containing 28,000 litres. A water truck removes groundwater from a property on Irymple Road, Karragullen.(Supplied) The water is bottled and sold under its NeverFail brand. Mr Ryan has no way of knowing whether this is having an impact on his access to groundwater, but is one of numerous residents calling for greater transparency about the amount of water being taken out of the ground by the beverage industry. "The more I've looked into this, the more surprised I am," he said. "I can't see any evidence of any hydrology reports or scientific investigations to see what would be the effects of industrial-scale extraction of a water supply on local communities that rely on that water." Since ABC Radio Perth revealed the existence of the water extraction business, which has been operating legally since 1992, WA Water Minister Simone McGurk pledged to take action and held a meeting with CCEP. "As a first step, arrangements will be made so Coca Cola can work with scientists at the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation so we are able to better understand their operations," Ms McGurk said. "In particular, I want to address community concerns around whether there is any impact on water users nearby. "I know there is a strong sentiment in the community on this issue and I want to assure the public we are taking it very seriously." CCEP said it would provide the government with its data but shied away from releasing it publicly. "From an estimate of the water balance of the local catchment surrounding Roleystone, our water use equates to a very small percentage of groundwater used," a spokesperson said. "The majority of water in the catchment is used for agriculture. "We are not able to share specific numbers as these are commercially sensitive. We have, however, shared these figures with the Western Australian government." The area around Karragullen includes homes, orchards and bushland — all reliant on groundwater.(ABC News: Emma Wynne) The ABC has also discovered two other groundwater extraction operations are operating in the Perth Hills, one owned by Aquaworks and another belonging to Asahi, the parent company of Schweppes. The bores are located in unproclaimed groundwater areas, meaning they are not required to pay for the water they extract, although council planning permission is required. An Asahi spokesperson said of its Bedfordale operations that "the review we commissioned last year found the removal of water is done sustainably and not expected to have a measurable impact on surrounding groundwater users". Ruth Butterfield is the Mayor of the City of Armadale, which has a number of bores used for bottled water supplies within its boundaries, including the Karragullen bore used by CCEP. She said it was a source of frustration that councils could not exercise greater oversight. "We are relying on [the companies] doing the right thing, and I don't know that there's any suggestion that they're doing the wrong thing, but we don't know," Ms Butterfield said. Geoff Parker is the chief executive of Australian Beverages Council, the representative body for companies that bottled water, and said the industry took care to operate sustainably. "Responsible stewardship of groundwater is incredibly important and it gets more important, obviously, the less rain that falls," he said. "Members of the beverages council have monitoring of bores, they have reporting of the data, they have the auditing of that data by independent auditors. "And we think, from the bottled water industry, that those standards are far in excess of what any other users of the groundwater would have in place." Australian Beverages Council chief executive Geoff Parker speaks at a press conference in 2018.(ABC News: Nick Haggarty) He said the data would be provided to the state government but said making it public would be up to individual companies. "We're certainly talking to the department around how we can ensure that there's more transparency, not just for our members who use the water, but for all users of the groundwater," Mr Parker said. "It is incredibly important that governments, whether they be councils or state governments, have a really clear indication of who's using what. "However, it needs to be a level playing field, and so all users of the groundwater resource should be willing to be doing exactly the same." Mr Parker said the council estimated that water drawn by its members would amount to a tiny fraction of the water used within the Perth and Goldfields water scheme. "We estimate that, from what our companies use, that it's approximately 0.04 per cent of the total amount that that particular scheme supplies,. Mornings with Nadia Mitsopoulos is live on ABC Radio Perth every weekday from 8:30-11am. Tune in on 720AM, digital radio or the ABC Listen app.Bottled water operation down the road
Companies defend extraction
Industry body says audits are rigorous