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Water resources - Quality - Australian Capital Territory

Specify a region: -- select region -- Murrumbidgee River

Australian Capital Territory

What are the main pressures on surface water quality and the key findings?

Pressures on Surface Water Quality

• urban runoff,
• land development and rural land use.
• Discharge of treated wastewater effluent.

Main findings: Location of Water Quality problems and trends

ACT water quality was generally within guidelines. Exceptions included sites with direct runoff from urban development, which had elevated turbidity, total nitrogen and faecal coliforms. Land use and development impacts were particularly evident in the Molonglo River sites. Total nitrogen values downstream of the ACT were high due to the discharge of treated wastewater effluent high in nitrate.

Trend analyses for all attributes indicated an increasing trend in faecal coliforms in the Murrumbidgee River downstream of the ACT.

Summaries presented within State and Territory reporting sections are from project reports compiled by State and Territory agencies. For further information contact the Australian Capital Territory Department of Urban Services

Description of water quality monitoring programs

Organisations Involved

Australian Capital Territory Department of Urban Services.

Management Objectives

• ACT Water Quality standards -Environment Protection Regulation 1997
• Territory Plan (environmental values for river reaches).
• ANZECC (1992) guidelines (for total nitrogen concentration)

Sampling Methods

Flow based (random timing) monitoring is used in the ACT in recognition of the strong affects of flow on a number water quality variables. Water quality sampling is triggered by flow duration.

For further information contact the Australian Capital Territory Department of Urban Services

The following table lists the coverage of water quality monitoring in Australian Capital Territory. Basins that had no stations used in this assessment of water quality monitoring are not listed in this table.

Drainage Basin	Number of stations used in water quality reporting	Number of attributes for which exceedance analyses could be determined	Number of attributes for which trend analyses could be determined
ACT	5	N/A	N/A
Murrumbidgee River (ACT)	5	6	5

Click on the basin name in the table to view a water quality report for that basin.

What is the extent of the water quality monitoring coverage?

Reported Monitoring Coverage

Data were reported from only five monitoring stations all within the Murrumbidgee basin representing river inflows and outflows from the ACT and urban streams.

The monitoring coverage was biased by no reporting of sites from rural or conservation catchments that comprise more than half the ACT land area.

Data provided enabled exceedance and trend analyses for five water quality variables: salinity, turbidity, total nitrogen, total phosphorous and pH.

Application of findings, information gaps and recommendations

Application of findings

Findings from the assessment of ACT surface water quality emphasise the need for the selection of data analysis techniques appropriate to the local monitoring program, flow - water quality relationships and seasonal conditions.

Information Gaps

• Appropriate, risk based total nitrogen guideline values are not established for the ACT.

Recommendations

1. Integration of physical/chemical and biological monitoring
2. Use of macroinvertebrates as direct measures of stream health

Summaries presented within State and Territory reporting sections are excepts from project reports compiled by State and Territory agencies. For further information contact Australian Capital Territory Department of Urban Services

Further Information

• Further information can be obtain from:
  • The report on water quality monitoring methods in the ACT
  • The ACT Department of Urban Services
• Link to Map Maker.