Six months ago when the city was experiencing severe drought, council undertook studies into the feasibility of using some of the city's groundwater bores to supplement the town water supply. At the time the bores were used for parkland irrigation.

Six were found to be contaminated. The studies found they had levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Council's infrastructure director Julian Geddes said PFAS is a very common chemical that has been used in Australia for around 50 years. It's in everything from non-stick items to firefighting foam, however, in the environment it's classified as a contaminant.

"Of the six bores to return PFAS contamination readings, three are used for parks and open space irrigation (Elston, Capari and Showground), three are used for town water supply (Driftwells, Thorby and Ronald)," Mr Geddes said.

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One of the bores was taken offline and a testing regime was initiated at the water treatment plant.

But Mr Geddes has reassured the public that there's currently no health risk.

"What I can advise is that there's absolutely no PFAS coming out of the water treatment plant. The water is absolutely safe to drink," he said.

Council notified the Environmental Protection Agency and NSW Health. They then undertook three rounds of testing of the bores and consulted with experts to develop a plan.

Mr Geddes said council was now undertaking a more detailed investigation into the contamination. It will include testing the parks and gardens that used the water with PFAS.

"We're going through a process to get more data about the PFAS levels in the water and in the soils and also what's important for us to work out is where the source is coming from," he said.

It will start with an investigation to see if other parts of the environment have been affected by PFAS. The results will be compared against the initial findings. Mr Geddes said the desired outcome was to find if the contamination could be removed from the environment.

The results of the sampling, which will take several weeks, will inform council's next steps.

"We don't want to generate any more concern, we want to keep people informed. Council didn't cause this problem, we're trying to be proactive in figuring it out," Mr Geddes said.