‘Bottled and boiled water’ plan revealed if mining ruins Perth’s drinking water

The WA government has been forced to defend its commitment to protecting Perth’s drinking water amid concerns about potential contamination from Alcoa’s mining operations on the city’s outskirts.

The US mining giant has long faced accusations it’s putting water safety at risk, and was not doing enough to restore the jarrah forest it has cleared at its bauxite mine sites.

Over years, Alcoa has pushed its bauxite operations closer to Serpentine Dam, a major drinking water source, raising concern of potential water quality risks.

There is no evidence those operations have ever impacted Perth’s water supply.

But a tranche of documents obtained by independent news site Boiling Cold, and seen by the ABC, has revealed in new detail the serious concerns held by the Water Corporation about Alcoa’s mining and management program.

How did we get here?

The state government approved the bauxite program in December 2023 on the condition Alcoa abide by strict environmental controls.

Under the arrangement, Alcoa must commit $100 million to help fund response efforts in the event Perth’s drinking water dams were contaminated due to mining operations.

Alcoa was also permitted to continue its mining operations while the state’s Environmental Protection Authority conducted its own assessment, a move that is typically prohibited under its act.

At the time, WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby said the government “made it clear to Alcoa that protecting Perth’s drinking water remains paramount”.

But documents show not everyone was convinced of this, with the state’s own Water Corporation in the same month finding environmental protection standards had been weakened to such an extent that Alcoa could mine over a larger area “without almost any constraints”.

“This relaxation is likely to be highly contentious to the community and certain interest groups,” it said in one of the documents obtained through Freedom of Information laws.

This was further explained in another internal report about drinking water safety, which said both the Water Corporation and Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) continued to hold concerns that protection controls were not strong enough.

The Water Corporation subsequently requested to be removed as a decision-making body from another government committee established to provide advice for bauxite state agreements.

Plans in place for water crisis

Following a site visit and meeting with Alcoa stakeholders in April last year, Water Corporation chief executive Pat Donovan told the body’s board thousands of customers could be impacted within hours of contaminated water entering Serpentine Pipehead Dam.

“Depending on the contamination event, this may result in the Department of Health issuing a boiled water advisory and/or Water Corporation needing to supply bottled water to more than 100,000 customers,” the chief executive said in their report to the board.

“After several weeks of supplying water from alternative dams and loss of storage, the scale of the impacts would require widespread water restrictions across the entire [Integrated Water Supply Scheme].”

But despite the concerns behind closed doors, Alcoa said there was no need to panic.

Alcoa said in a statement it “continues to comply with the strict conditions put in place by the state government” and deferred mining activity in the reservoir protection zone.

“The community can continue to have confidence in Alcoa’s multi-decade track record of operating in WA without ever negatively impacting drinking water supply,” it said.

Premier Roger Cook said the protection of the state’s drinking water was the government’s “highest priority”.

“We have extra people on the ground to make sure that when they are undertaking mining activities in those riskier areas that every precaution is taken to ensure that they don’t present an unnecessary or a significant risk to our drinking water catchment,” he said.

“We know that Alcoa employ literally thousands of Western Australians.

“The work they do is very important, not only to those West Aussies that work for them, but to the WA economy.

“But we’re going to protect our environment by stringent contemporary and very strong oversight.”

Calls for rethink

Conservation Council WA acting campaigns director Mia Pepper said the concerns raised in the documents should be “raising alarm bells with Alcoa”.

“When things go wrong, they go very wrong and it’s very expensive to clean up,” she told ABC Radio Perth.

“There is a huge cost to both workers and the community when it comes to public health and exposure to contaminants, like we can expect to see here if things go badly.”

Ms Pepper said legislation should be bolstered to ensure the state’s water resources were kept safe.

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