Little Newry State Forest water sampling program
Information about the water sampling program and results at Little Newry State Forest.
From March to July 2025, the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) sampled water quality in waterways in and around Little Newry State Forest, near Valla on the NSW Mid-North Coast, following recent timber harvesting activities.
Two small historical mineral prospecting sites are located within the state forest and community members raised concerns that harvesting operations may have resulted in elevated arsenic concentrations in local streams that could impact aquatic ecosystems and pose risks for recreational users (people swimming or wading).
The sampling program was designed to identify if recent harvesting operations had impacted:
- aquatic ecosystems of streams within the forest
- recreational water quality further downstream in the Oyster Creek estuary.
Summary of results
The sampling results indicate that the recent harvest operations have not impacted the water or sediment quality of streams in Little Newry State Forest or Oyster Creek.
- Arsenic concentrations did not exceed guideline values in any water samples from the forest streams immediately downstream of the harvest areas.
- Arsenic concentrations did exceed the sediment quality guideline value at one of the Little Newry State Forest sites but are not likely to be the result of recent activity because the sediment samples were collected from below a thick layer of decomposing organic matter.
- Arsenic concentrations were below the sediment quality guideline value at the other three Little Newry State Forest sites despite more harvesting having occurred in their catchments.
- Arsenic concentrations were below the recreational water quality guideline value in all samples from Oyster Creek estuary and do not pose a risk to recreational users, such as people swimming or wading.
- Concentrations of arsenic V (a form of arsenic that can be toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms) did exceed the aquatic ecosystem health guideline value at Oyster Creek during all three sampling events. However, these elevated concentrations are unlikely to be related to the recent harvest activities because concentrations were generally much lower at the Little Newry State Forest sites. The higher concentrations likely arise from the natural geology and/or other catchment influences. In mineralised catchments the aquatic ecosystem typically adapts to the naturally elevated levels of metals in the waterways.
NSW Health advises that water from rivers and creeks should not be used for drinking or cooking without appropriate treatment. Untreated water may contain disease causing micro-organisms, chemical contaminants or algal blooms. For more information visit Drinking surface water - Water quality (nsw.gov.au).
Read the full report Little Newry State Forest water quality sampling (PDF 2MB).