Perth residents query decades of water extraction by Coca-Cola tankers amid record dry spell

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Residents in the Perth Hills have raised concerns about thousands of litres of water extracted from a bore on a private property by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners for its bottled water products.

On a quiet road in Karragullen, on Perth's eastern fringe, water trucks regularly pull up at an unassuming residential property and cart away thousands of litres of groundwater to be bottled and sold under Coca-Cola's Neverfail brand.

There is no suggestion the company is doing anything wrong. The company had a private arrangement with the owner to extract the water for more than 20 years before buying the property for $1.4 million in 2020.

According to the WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER), the company is completely free to do so.

In a statement, a DWER spokesperson said the bore was located in an "unproclaimed groundwater area".

"Consequently a water licence is not required for the take of water from the bore in this area and water licence fees will not apply," the spokesperson said.

The company said it had operated with permission from the City of Armadale since commencing the water extraction decades ago, and was subject to a maximum annual draw limit, although it declined to say what that limit was.

"During this time, we have consistently drawn significantly less water than the permitted extraction volume limit," the company spokesperson said.

"Where we do extract water, we ensure that the source is sustainable both for us and for that of all other users of the same aquifer."

But the City of Armadale said it had no role in regulating the water extraction, or monitoring how much water is taken, and referred questions back to DWER.

The area around Karragullen and Roleystone is dotted with orchards and natural bushland.(Wikimedia Commons: radiotrefoil/CC0)

Neighbours call for greater transparency

Cathy Chmielewski is one of a number of Karragullen orchardists located on the same road as the water operation.

She told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth she'd been raising concerns about the water extraction since 1992.

She said she was told in 2003 that the company could take a maximum of 14 tankers — which hold 29,400 litres each — per week, but she didn't think this was monitored.

"It's not monitored and that's always been one of my concerns," Ms Chmielewski said.

"And I think that the local orchards and the local residents should be consulted or surveyed to see how it's affecting their property."

Over the past six months Perth has experienced a record-breaking dry spell, recording the lowest rainfall since records began almost 150 years ago.

Ms Chmielewski said the water shortage had had a marked impact on her property and others in the area.

"I understand that the climate is drier, I understand that there's more people utilising the bores," she said.

"The problem that we're having now with this dry summer that we've had is that we're running out of our groundwater to irrigate our trees."

When her family first bought the orchard in 1955, a dam used to irrigate the property would refill overnight, replenished by underground streams.

"That doesn't happen anymore, so we've had to actually put bores in to supplement the dam water so that we can irrigate our trees," she said.

Amid such dwindling supplies, she questioned why water could be extracted for bottled water sales, and said she would like to see draw limits reviewed more frequently and by an independent body.

"I think the local residents, and the local environment, should be top priority rather than taking it away and using it just for bottled water," she said.

Hotter, drier summers

Local resident Meg Travers said she was appalled to learn that water was being taken for bottling in the current climate conditions.

"I grew up here. I've spent most of my life in Roleystone and the hills in this area. And I've certainly noticed the summer is getting hotter up here," she said.

"After last summer a lot of the trees in the bushland are dying or dead.

"People who are gardening around here are all saying they lost trees that are many years, or decades, old," she said.

"It's because of that water table dropping — those old trees don't have their feet in water anymore."

Ms Travers is calling for the arrangement with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners to be reviewed, and for more checks to see how much water is being carted away.

"I would like to see proper monitoring, because as far as I can tell, an agreement was made back in the 1990s for some unknown amount of water to be drawn.

"But the climate's changed since then and it doesn't appear that that limit has been reviewed at all."

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