ENVIRONMENT
• water authori ties (including urban and rural water authoriti es responsible for providing drinking and irrigation water). T h e environmental regulatory authority is typically responsible fo r discharge licences co waterways, neighbourhood environmental improvement plans, and producing policy and regul ations relati ng co water authorities and industry. Catchment managers (such as the Catchment Water Management B oards in South A u stralia or Catchment Managem ent Authorities in Victoria) typically care about m any aspect s of water quality, and are interested in snapshots of the water quality, targeted assessment of stream rehabilitation actions, cost benefi t analysis, and long term strategies fo r managing regiona l water quality. Oth er reasons co care about water quality include moni toring drin k i ng water quality, irriga tion water quality, hea lth considerations, and o ngoing land management.
Why care? Water quality monitoring is usuall y intended to answer one or mo re of the followi ng questio ns: • are we ca using an hnpact? T he answers to this question will drive • are we satisfying our regulatory/ legislative objectives? (eg. th e State Environment Protection Policies in V ictoria) T he answers to th is question can stimul ate deeper consideration of the appropriateness of the obj ectives, poss ible solutions, and perha p s fines or deeper co nsequences; • what is the background environmental con dition of the waterways? Th e answers to this question will drive • will we benefit from an enhanced environmental condition of the waterways? • are our strategic investments and decisions making a difference to the waterway quality? T he answers to this question will drive future actions, including pol icy decisions, engin eering works, and revised environmental objectives. Fro m a cynical po in t of view, a lot of water quali ty manage me nt is undertaken " beca use we have co."
What approach should we take? The traditi onal approach to water quality monitoring is a rigorous scientifi c approac h. Th is is a resea rch based approach, with a case-by-case progra m me developm en t. There is a strong emp hasis on: • statistics, including rigorous experiment and pilot study design including power analysis and repli cates; • biotaxonomy, wh ich involves considerable field and laborato1y expertise, time and cost; and • biological response assessm ent, which involves assessment of the co mplex ecology of aquatic organ isms in their biotic and ab iotic en virons . T his is a thorough approach that shoul d produce valid resu lts in almost all cases. A m ore recen tly developed approach is rapid assessme nt of environmental condition . This approac h , initially developed in the United States, has been adopted by m any Australian states following rigorous comparison and validation of tech ni ques . In Victoria, rapid assessment of environmental condition has been incorporated as a standard protocol in the State En vironmen t Protection Policies. T h ese methods include evaluation of biological, nutrients and other water quality parameters to assess water quali ty. The methods are suitable for cost effective entry-level examination
of water quality, and produce standardised results that are comparable between studies. However, rapid assessment m ethods are often not sensitive enough for all systems, or to answer all questions, especially for large river systems or wetland systems . The m ost recent approach formally adopted by th e Victorian EPA is a risk assessment based approach, w hi ch can use a combination of the traditional and rapid approaches. A typical approach would use rapid techniques co identify areas of high 1i sk for subsequent assessment usin g m ore rigorous research- based me thods. This approach shou ld be the m ost cost effective approach, and but it will not pro vide a set of base lin e water quality data that is com parable across catchme nts.
What tools are available? There are numerous tools available to water qua li ty practitioners in Australia. This section is designed to give an overview of the cools for non-prac titioners to pro vide a basic level of understanding. Th e selection of m on itoring tools will depend on a number of fund amenta l qu estions, including: • what is to be m easured? • how quickly are resul ts requ ired? • what resources (fin ancial and other) are available:> • what are th e characteristics of the area to be monitored (i ncluding accessibili ty, seaso nal flows, etc)' In m any circumstances, th e ultim ate aim of the m o nitorin g is to dete rmine the effects o f the water quality on the biology o f th e area. The use of non-biological indi cators for estimating
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