To meet the growing domestic and industrial water supply demand of the Leigh Creek Coal Field, at present supplied from bores at Sliding Rock, an alternative source of supply to that provided by a dam fed by local rain catchment areas, is the water available in the South West margin of the Great Artesian Basin. This water, however, contains 4 parts per million of fluorine, far in excess of the maximum of one part per million permissible in a public water supply. The problem of economically removing, or reducing the fluorine content of this water to safe limits for human consumption was undertaken by the South Australian Department of Mines in October, 1950.