Resources

Water Quality Data

It is estimated that about $142-168M is spent annually in Australia on monitoring water quality (Atech, 2000). This monitoring is undertaken by a range of Commonwealth, State or Local Government agencies, private companies, research groups and community-based groups, over a range of settings, the most significant being rivers and creeks, industrial effluent and reservoirs and lakes (refer Table 1). The most common reasons cited for monitoring water quality are compliance with health or environmental regulations, operational or process control, or for environmental or catchment health, with the most common parameters monitored being general physicochemical attributes (eg temperature, pH), nutrients, ions and pathogens (Atech, 2000). Table 2 outlines the organisations that undertake significant monitoring of water quality.

Table 1: Water type categories with the most significant water quality monitoring effect (Atech 2000)
Water Type Category Number of Monitoring Programs % of Programs
Rivers and creeks 293 29
Industrial effluent 177 18
Reservoirs and Lakes 114 11
Drinking water reticulation systems 82 8
Estuaries 83 8
Groundwater 69 7
Domestic wastewater 68 7
Coastal and marine waters 46 5

National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA)

At a national level, the Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 (NLWRA, 2001) reported the level of significance of various water quality issues such as nutrients, salinity, turbidity and pH at a river basin scale. The analysis highlighted the catchments where monitoring was insufficient for undertaking exceedance or trend analyses. Other national assessments by the NLWRA associated with water quality and available from the ANRDL include:

  1. sediment and nutrient source, sink, load and delivery information compiled from the Water-borne Soil Erosion Project;
  2. reporting of the proportion of farms with significant land or water degradation problems at the Statistical Division (SD) level;
    3. and
  3. mapping of current and future dryland salinity hazard. These assessments were undertaken by State/Territory agencies using a combination of groundwater levels and trends, known salinity incidences, soil properties and topography.

Waterwatch

The Waterwatch initiative is a community-based water monitoring program designed to encourage local participation in catchment management. Over 300 community groups in 200 catchments are involved in the regular monitoring of about 5,000 sites across Australia, including physical and chemical testing. The program supports State-based facilitators and activities:

Waterwatch ACT
Waterwatch NSW
Waterwatch Queensland
Waterwatch South Australia
Waterwatch Victoria
Ribbons of Blue (Waterwatch WA)

Streamwatch is a similar public water quality network established around the Sydney metropolitan area and sponsored by Sydney Water .

National Pollution Inventory

This inventory provides public access to information on the types and amounts of 90 priority substances being emitted to the environment. It covers pollution emission data for about 3,000 facilities within 29 catchments across Australia.

At the State level, a wide range of water management, environmental protection and health agencies maintain water quality databases to service their regulatory, licensing or management activities (refer Table 2). The more significant of these databases relate to issues such as rural drinking water, sewage treatment plants, algal blooms, pesticides, agricultural waters, riverine sediment or salinity trends.

Table 2: Organisations undertaking significant water quality monitoring (modified from Atech, 2000)
Jurisdiction Organisation Monitoring Focus
AUS Waterwatch River health
MDB Murray Darling Basin Commission Salinity
ACT Environment ACT Natural resource management
NSW Sydney Water Corporation Urban water supply
NSW Sydney Catchment Authority Urban water supply catchments
NSW NSW Department of Natural Resources Natural resources management
NSW NSW Department of Environment and Conservation Environmental regulation and compliance
NSW Hunter Water Corporation Urban water supply
NT NT Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts Natural resources management
NT NT Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries and Mines Environmental compliance of mining industry
NT NT Power and Water Authority Urban and regional water supply
Qld Qld Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water Natural resources management
Qld Qld Environment Protection Agency Environmental regulation and compliance
Qld South East Queensland Water Corporation Urban water supply
Qld Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Impacts on GBR
SA SA Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Natural resource management
SA Environmental Protection Authority SA Environmental regulation and compliance
SA SA Water Corporation Urban water supply
Tas Tas Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment Natural resource management
Tas Hydro Tasmania Power station discharges
Tas Mineral Resources Tasmania Groundwater
Tas Tas Department of Health and Human Services Health compliance
Vic Vic Department of Sustainability and Environment Natural resource management
Vic Melbourne Water Corporation Urban water supply
Vic Goulburn Murray Water Irrigation and drainage
Rural water supply
Vic Environmental Protection Authority Victoria Environmental regulation and compliance
WA WA Department of Environment and Conservation Natural resource management
Environment regulation and compliance
WA WA Water Corporation Urban water supply
Irrigation and drainage
WA WA Department of Agriculture and Food Groundwater salinity
Nutrients

References

Atech, 2000. Water monitoring in Australia. Report for Environment Australia and National Land and Water Resources Audit.

NLWRA, 2000. Australian Water Resources Assessment, 2000. National Land and Water Resources Audit.