The council says regular monitoring of the aquifer hasn't come back with any PFAS positive samples. Photo: Local Democracy Reporting/ Chloe Ranford
Tests have come back clear over possible contamination of Napier's drinking water with 'forever' chemicals.
Water reports show the council three years ago identified a "very high potential risk" from long lasting PFAS chemicals.
The focus was Taradale fire station, because fire brigades until recently used foams with Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in them.
Taradale is home to five of the city's seven groundwater bores.
The concern sparked the first tests at two bores (named T2 and C1) in mid-2020, then every three months since 2021.
"We have never detected PFAS in any groundwater samples," the council told RNZ on Friday.
"We haven't started shallow groundwater investigations - this will take place later this year.
"But our regular monitoring of the aquifer hasn't come back with any PFAS positive samples."
All the bores tap into the same aquifer.
"Although all our sources draw from deep and confined aquifers with artesian pressure and where no PFAS were detected, we are keen to understand better what contaminants are or could be present above those confining protective layers" in shallow groundwater, the council said.
Napier fire station in the central city was investigated for contamination, and cleared, but Taradale was not looked at, when Fire and Emergency looked at, and cleared, eight stations after the PFAS contamination scare broke in New Zealand in late 2017.
The council's red flag pops up in a September 2022 water source risk report - a new requirement on water suppliers regulated by the government water watchdog Taumatu Arowai.
"The Taradale Fire Station located near to T2 [bore] and is considered to pose a very high potential PFAS/PFOA contamination risk to the bore given the up-gradient location and highly mobile nature of the contaminants," the report said.
The T2 bore extracts about 58,000 cubic metres of water a week for the city.
Napier bore locations. Photo: Supplied
PFAS variants - there are thousands of them - were the subject of lots of research worldwide, among the latest of which shows a combination of them disrupts key human biological processes that can then increase the likelihood of various diseases.
Most people have a combination of the tenacious compounds in their blood, and the research was the first to look at the impacts of that combination on children and young people.
In 2018 the Hawke's Bay Regional Council identified PFAS as an emerging contaminant of concern.