Water resources - Quality - Victoria
Victoria
What are the main pressures on surface water quality and the key findings?
Pressures on Surface Water Quality
- water diversion
- watercourse flow regulation
- grazing and removing riparian vegetation
- pest plants and animals
- intensive agriculture and
- the movement of salts, nutrient and suspended soil into water courses
Main findings: Location of Water Quality problems and trends
Despite water quality being generally fair across the State, total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in most basins continually exceeded guidelines. Only two less developed basins in the east of the State, the Snowy and the Mitchell did not record exceedances for both nitrogen and total phosphorus. Victorian nutrient exceedance guidelines for nitrogen are currently being reviewed to better reflect the variability of monitored systems. Nutrient trend analyses were limited by the available data but where available, tended to indicate decreasing total nitrogen for northern and eastern basins and increases for a number of south coast basins including the Hopkins, Tambo and South Gippsland. A mixture of increasing and decreasing trends were observed for total phosphorus. South coast basins including the Portland coast, Hopkins, Otway and South Gippsland showed an increasing trend while the Latrobe and the Maribyrong showed decreasing trends.
Turbidity exceedances were widespread across Victoria with only eastern basins including the Latrobe, Thomson, Mitchell and the Snowy not exceeding turbidity guidelines. Turbidity was observed to increase in several basins within the Murray-Darling Drainage Division in the north of the State and within the Maribyrong and South Gippsland basins in the south. Decreasing turbidity was recorded in the Latrobe and Wimmera-Avon basins.
A significant portion of the State's basins also recorded exceedances of salinity guidelines, including most western basins in the Murray Darling and South-East Coast Drainage Divisions. Four of these basins also showed salinity to be increasing while basins in the central north and south including the Maribyrong, Barwon, Campaspe and Latrobe showed salinity to be decreasing.
Only a few basins had pH guideline exceedances including the Campaspe, Wimmera-Avon and the Thomson, however decreasing pH trends (increasing acidity) were recorded for most eastern basins while several central southern basins recorded increases in pH (increasing alkalinity).
Summaries presented within State and Territory reporting sections are from project reports compiled by State and Territory agencies. For further information contact the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) or the Victorian Environment Protection Agency
Description of water quality monitoring programs
Organisations Involved
- Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE)
- Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and Melbourne Water
There are two main programs, rural monitoring and metropolitan monitoring.
Management Objectives
- Varies across the State.
- State Environment Protection Policies (SEEP).
- ANZECC guidelines (If no SEEP exist for a site, except for nutrient parameters).
- Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorus management objectives based on Victorian EPA's Preliminary Nutrient Guidelines or the Victorian Nutrient Management Strategy for which exceedance class boundaries are site specific.
Sampling Methods
- Monthly and some weekly routine sampling (see detailed methodology report).
Summaries presented within State and Territory reporting sections are excepts from project reports compiled by State and Territory agency personnel. To down load full project reports go to State and Territory project reports. For further information contact the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE)
The following table lists the coverage of water quality monitoring in Victoria. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIC | 184 | N/A | N/A |
| Avoca River | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Barwon River | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Broken River | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Bunyip River | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Campaspe River | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| East Gippsland | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Glenelg River | 10 | 5 | 5 |
| Goulburn River | 16 | 5 | 5 |
| Hopkins River | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Kiewa River | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Lake Corangamite | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Latrobe River | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Loddon River | 9 | 5 | 5 |
| Mallee | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Maribyrnong River | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Millicent Coast | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Mitchell River | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Moorabool River | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Murray-Riverina | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| Otway Coast | 11 | 5 | 5 |
| Ovens River | 9 | 5 | 5 |
| Portland Coast | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Snowy River | 9 | 5 | 5 |
| South Gippsland | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Tambo River | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Thomson River | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Upper Murray River | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Werribee River | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Wimmera - Avon Rivers | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Yarra River | 8 | 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
The Victorian Water Quality Monitoring Network monitors 180 sites covering 27 of the state's 30 basins. The monitoring coverage for the State is therefore very good covering all drainage divisions and most basins. Ongoing program development seeks to ensure appropriate spatial coverage and river representation across the State. More sites are currently located in the upper - middle reaches of rivers than lower catchment areas.
Exceedance analyses were possible for five variables: salinity, turbidity total nitrogen, total phosphorus and pH in all monitored basins and trend analyses possible for all variables in most basins. Monitoring station density and resultant basin coverage was too low to characterise water quality within a number of smaller coastal basins and western and northern Murray-Darling Drainage Division Basins.
Application of findings, information gaps and recommendations
Application of findings
Findings of the Audit surface water quality assessment:
- provide a broad overview of water quality in the State.
- assists in the identification of ongoing or potential problems with water quality
- increases the capacity to make priority decisions within the context of State Environmental Protection Policies or Regional Catchment Management Strategies
- enables prioritisation of management effort and funding to focus on specific river systems which are under significant pressure or address specific environmental issues that are recognised as a Statewide Problem, and
- will assist the EPA and the DNRE to make decisions about Statewide water quality monitoring programs by identifying where redirection of resources are required to better meet objectives and add to existing programs.
Information Gaps
- Improved understanding is required regarding the range of natural climatic and geographic variability in water quality across the State.
- Water quality information on the lower reaches or undisturbed areas of catchments is lacking due to the inadequate representation of such areas within the monitoring station network.
Recommendations
- State monitoring sites be extended to include sites in pristine, undisturbed areas and the lower reaches of catchments.
- Regional specific objectives and monitoring programs be progressively developed to better accommodate regional variations in water quality and management objectives.
Summaries presented within State and Territory reporting sections are excepts from project reports compiled by State and Territory agency personnel. To down load full project reports go to State and Territory project reports. For further information contact the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE)
Further Information
- Further information can be obtain from:
- Link to Map Maker.
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