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Water Quality
Water quality is of great importance as it is the lifeline of Australia’s natural environment. Of the world’s continents, Australia is the most poorly endowed with surface fresh-water resources (Sale, 1994). Part of this is due to the fact that Australia has the world’s lowest annual rainfall and the highest proportional evaporation. Surface water of any kind is scarce over most of the continent, so it is important to preserve our natural waterways and to maintain a high quality of water.
Australia is currently in the midst of a lengthy drought resulting in decreased creek flows and habitats for aquatic macroinvertebrates and other aquatic organisms. This situation is worsened by changes created through human encroachment on natural systems. Human activities including land clearing, chemical use (e.g. fertilisers), grazing use and waste disposal pose major threats to Australian rivers. Many creeks in urban catchments (such as in Pittwater) have unsatisfactory water quality, often due to the presence of sediment, nutrients and pollutants (Aquatech 1995 p9-11).
Importance of Monitoring
Water quality monitoring can be defined as “an undertaking on the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water by regular sampling and analysis” (Aquatech, 1995 p12)
Water quality monitoring is essential to the long term economic and environmental viability of the country; it provides useful information which can:
- Identify problems with the health of the catchment.
- Facilitate water resources management and pollution control.
- Be used in the development of water quality standards and guidelines, as well as for testing compliance
- Underpin environmental protection policies, including catchment management programs and state of the environment reporting systems (Aquatech, 1995 p12).