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In this section you will find detailed information, including national overviews and state and regional level assessments, from the 2000-2002 National Land and Water Resources Audit theme assessments.
Water resources - Quality - Queensland
Basin: Border Rivers
Surface water quality in Border Rivers
Attributes for which exceedance analyses could be determined:
Salinity, pH, Total Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen, Turbidity
Attributes for which trend analyses could be determined:
Salinity, pH, Total Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen, Turbidity
For sites within the Border Rivers Catchment, electrical conductivity levels were good and no significant temporal trends were detected. This suggests salinity is not significantly affecting water quality in these locations. Conversely, total phosphorus and turbidity classifications were fair to poor. Whilst turbidity levels appear to gradually increase along the basin, the Severn River appears to have the highest total phosphorus levels. No significant temporal trends were found for either of these variables, indicating that water quality is not improving.
Site #416001 Barwon River: Mungindi
This site is located downstream of Mungindi, in flat, open countryside supporting scattered timber growth. Large-scale cotton irrigation occurs both upstream and downstream of Mungindi, and in areas of cattle grazing that are not under cotton. The site is sampled as part of DLWC's Statewide Key Sites Water Quality Trend Assessment Program.
Site #416011 Dumaresq River: Roseneath No.2
This site is in the upstream end of the Border Rivers catchment in far northern NSW, and low flow conditions are a relatively common experience. Cattle grazing is the most common land use in the area, together with some small scale spray irrigation and dryland cropping in the narrow floodplain areas. The site is sampled for DLWC's Statewide Key Sites Water Quality Trend Assessment Program.
Site #416012 Macintyre River: Holdfast (Yelarbon Crossing)
The land surrounding the site has grass cover, with scattered patches of trees, and Bebo State Forest lies to the north east of the river. Upstream of the site there are a number of stockyards and sheds along the river. Cattle grazing predominates in the catchment, but there is also some dryland cropping and small scale spray irrigation taking place. The site is sampled for DLWC's Statewide Key Sites Water Quality Trend Assessment Program and the DBBRC's Border Rivers Water Quality Monitoring Program.
Site #41610053
(formerly 416019 Severn R downstream of Pindari) Severn R. downstream of Pindari at road bridge
In the past, samples were taken just downstream of Pindari Dam, but the site is now sampled about 5km further downstream. The site is situated in cleared land, with poor riparian vegetation and tree cover. Water quality is strongly influenced by the quality of storage releases. The dominant land use is grazing (sheep and cattle), and there is some cultivation for forage crops and pasture establishment. The site is sampled as part of DLWC's Statewide Key Sites Water Quality Trend Assessment Program.
Site #416039 Severn River: Strathbogie
This site is in the upper Severn, approximately 15-20km upstream of Pindari Dam. Due to the steep topography, the dominant land use is grazing (sheep and cattle). Some cropping also occurs on a small scale, mainly for pasture improvement or forage crops (such as oats). The site is sampled as part of DLWC's Statewide Key Sites Water Quality Trend Assessment Program.
| Monitoring Station | Salinity - Electrical conductivity | Total nitrogen | Total phosphorus | Turbidity | pH | Blue Green Algae | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exceed | Trend | Exceed | Trend | Exceed | Trend | Exceed | Trend | Exceed | Trend | Exceed | Trend | |
| 416409A | Good | No Data | No Data | No Data | Fair | No Data | Poor | No Data | Good | No Data | No Data | No Data |
| 416317A | No Data | No Trend | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Trend | No Data | No Data |
| 416012 | Good | No Data | No Data | No Data | Poor | No Data | Poor | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data |
| 416011 | Good | No Data | No Data | No Data | Fair | No Data | Poor | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data |
| 416019 | Good | No Data | No Data | No Data | Poor | No Data | Poor | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data |
| 416039 | Good | No Data | No Data | No Data | Poor | No Data | Poor | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data |
| 416001 | Good | No Trend | No Data | No Data | Poor | No Trend | Poor | No Trend | No Data | No Data | No Data | No Data |
Select a station name in the table above to view a detailed station report.
Monitoring Water Quality Guideline exceedances and trends
Exceedance Classification
For the Audit assessment of surface water quality, individual monitoring sites were classified as good, fair or poor for each variable based on whether State and Territory water quality guidelines (see below) were exceeded. Generally a 'good' classification was achieved where water quality was within guidelines for a greater period of time while a 'poor' classification resulted where water quality did not fall within the guidelines for a greater period of time. A range of statistical measures including the median, 90th percentile, and % time exceedance, were used by States and Territories for this determination dependent upon the variable and whether the analysis was based on assessing acute (short term extreme event) or chronic (long term sustained event) water quality impacts. 'Fair' water quality describes situations intermediate between good and poor. Full discussion of the methods used for water quality exceedance and trend assessment are presented in the Water Quality Technical Report (see link to technical report).
Water quality Trends
Detecting trends in surface water quality is complicated by seasonal climatic variation and the influence of stream flows on the observed concentrations of water contaminants. For these reasons a long term (~10 year) data set containing relatively frequently collected water quality samples (monthly as a minimum) and concurrent flow data are required to support trend assessments. A range of statistical analyses were used by States and Territories to report on water quality trends, dependent upon the nature of the monitoring (i.e., flow based versus regular sampling) and quality of the data (i.e., the method's ability to accommodate missing data values). All used methods that accounted for seasonality and stream flow influences (see link to technical report).
The significance of observed trends were assessed statistically to ensure they were not the result of random variation. Significant trends were reported in terms of their magnitude (i.e., how much change per annum) and their direction i.e. whether they were increasing or decreasing. Results that indicated no trends were also reported.
Result Aggregation
To be able to build an overview of State and National water quality it was necessary to aggregate water quality results from individual sites to river basins. To do this an 'upstream area weighting' method was used. Results obtained from a monitoring station were multiplied by the amount of catchment area that it samples. Weighted results from individual monitoring stations allows a river basin to be characterised in terms of the percentage of area classified as good, fair or poor, or in terms of the area undergoing increasing or decreasing trends for a particular water quality variable. Results per basin are presented graphically as colored pie charts.
This method was supported and adopted by State and territory agencies when compiling the national assessment and can be rationalised in terms of the way water quality interacts within a basin. Nevertheless, the potential for error generation was recognised, particularly when monitoring station coverage across the basin is limited, the opportunity for bias in the characterisation of basin water quality increases. This may lead to the underestimation of the extent of a water quality issue where monitoring stations are not placed within impacted areas, or alternatively overestimation, where in the absence of upstream monitoring stations, results obtained by impacted lowland sites are used to characterise the upper basin.
The Water resources - Quality - Queensland's reporting capacity to interrogate data down to an individual monitoring site scale provides the opportunity for basin wide aggregations presented elsewhere to be further examined.
- Salinity
- Surface Water pH
- Nutrients
- Turbidity
- Faecal Coliforms
- Blue-green Algae
List of attributes:
Note: some attribute information may not be available for some areas
Trend Legend
Exceedance Legend
Salinity
No Salinity information exists for this basin
Surface Water pH
No pH information exists for this basin
Nutrients
No Nutrient information exists for this basin
Turbidity
No Surface Water Turbidity information exists for this basin
Faecal coliforms
No Faecal Coliforms information exists for this basin
Blue-green algae
No Blue-Green Algae information exists for this basin
Further Information
Key
Links to an another web site
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