Australian Drinking Water Guidelines – Public consultation on draft guidance for lead replacements in plumbing products, lead and manganese

Closed 6 Sep 2024

Opened 26 Jul 2024

Overview

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is inviting feedback on guidance material developed for the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (the Guidelines) on lead replacements in plumbing products, lead and manganese.

NHMRC is seeking feedback relating to the following guidance material:

  • Chemicals leaching from plumbing products - draft information sheet

  • Bismuth – draft chemical fact sheet

  • Silicon – draft chemical fact sheet

  • Selenium – draft chemical fact sheet (update)

  • Lead – draft chemical fact sheet (update) 

  • Manganese – draft chemical fact sheet (update)

  • Proposed consequential edits to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 

The draft guidance material is available for download below, together with the draft Administrative Report outlining the guideline development process, and the supporting evidence reviews undertaken for each chemical / fact sheet.

Feedback on other aspects of water quality management or on other sections of the Guidelines are beyond the scope of this consultation and will not be considered.

What are the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines?

The Guidelines are part of the National Water Quality Management Strategy and are designed to provide a framework for safe, good quality drinking water, how it can be achieved and how it can be assured.

NHMRC maintains the Guidelines through a rolling review process to ensure they represent the latest scientific evidence on good quality drinking water. Updates to specific sections, including the chemical fact sheets, are prioritised based on expert advice and availability of new or emerging scientific evidence.

What is changing?

Based on a review of the available evidence, NHMRC is proposing updates to the Guidelines focused on lead replacements in plumbing products, lead and manganese.

The draft guidance material includes new guidance on chemicals leaching from plumbing products, new health-based guideline values for bismuth and silicon in drinking water, and updates to the chemical fact sheets for selenium, lead and manganese, including updated guideline values. There are also minor edits across the Guidelines to provide alignment and consistency between sections.

Table 1. Summary of proposed guideline value changes

Chemical / Fact Sheet 

Current guideline recommendation in the Guidelines

Proposed guideline recommendation for public consultation

Bismuth

No fact sheet on bismuth in the Guidelines

Based on health considerations, the concentration of bismuth in drinking water should not exceed 10 mg/L.

Silicon

No fact sheet on silicon in the Guidelines

Based on health considerations, the concentration of silicon in drinking water should not exceed 100 mg/L.

Selenium

Based on health considerations, the concentration of selenium in drinking water should not exceed 0.01 mg/L.

Based on health considerations, the concentration of selenium in drinking water should not exceed 0.004 mg/L.

Lead

Based on health considerations, the concentration of lead in drinking water should not exceed 0.01 mg/L.

Based on health considerations, the concentration of lead in drinking water should not exceed 0.005 mg/L

Manganese

Based on aesthetic considerations, the concentration of manganese in drinking water should not exceed
0.1 mg/L. 

Based on health considerations, the concentration of manganese in drinking water should not exceed
0.5 mg/L. 

Based on aesthetic considerations, the concentration of manganese in drinking water should not exceed 0.05 mg/L. 

Based on health considerations, the concentration of manganese in drinking water should not exceed
0.1 mg/L. 

How can I make a submission? 

Submissions should be made via the online survey below.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 6 September, 11:59PM AEST. Late submissions will not be accepted.

The survey invites responses to specific questions related to the guidance material and provides space for comments on each individual component of the guidance material. Please note the survey does not allow for attachments to be uploaded.

You do not have to provide a comment for each question. Please focus on the guidance material of most interest to you and/or your organisation.

Submissions will be published in full unless otherwise indicated. Please clearly identify any information in your submission that you would like redacted prior to publication.

What happens next?

The information provided during this consultation will help us strengthen the management framework for drinking water quality across Australia. Your feedback will assist us in making this guidance as user friendly and relevant as possible.

At the end of the consultation period, all submissions will be considered by the Water Quality Advisory Committee in consultation with the NHMRC.

It is expected that the guidance material will be published as part of the Guidelines in 2025.

Consultation material

Please see below for downloadable versions of the guidance material, together with the draft Administrative Report, and the supporting evidence reviews undertaken for each chemical / fact sheet. You may choose to open any document or link in a new tab by right clicking and selecting "Open link in new tab".

Disclaimer: NHMRC aims to follow and meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2 AA). Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of NHMRC's website, we publish documents and publications received from third parties. These third party documents may not meet the WCAG 2.2 AA and there may be some limitations. 

If you have difficulty accessing our content, contact us by emailing: webrequest@nhmrc.gov.au. Please provide a summary and description of the location of the web page or content in question so we can send an alternate format of the content where possible.

Audiences

  • General public
  • Academics
  • Commonwealth agencies
  • Local governments
  • State government agencies
  • Health professionals
  • Health workforce
  • Non-government organisations
  • Businesses
  • Community groups
  • Contracted service providers

Interests

  • Guideline Development