28 Feb Water Quality Monitoring 2016 to 2021
The results for Water Quality Monitoring over the years 2016 to 2021 are very pleasing.
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation(DWER) in partnership with Friends of Moore River Estuary have collected water samples up to 4 times a year for the past 5 years. DWER have analysed these water samples for dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, pH, nutrients and heavy metals. This data has then been compared with data collected during the years 2004 and 2009.
A detailed analysis of this Water Quality Monitoring can be found on the power point presentation prepared by Ryan Kam at DWER:
Moore River Estuary Data Analysis 2016 to 2021Summary
Current indications are that a healthy status quo exists. Good dissolved oxygen concentrations were found at all sampled sites, enabling aquatic flora and fauna to thrive. However, marginally higher nitrogen was found in recent water samples, likely due to changes in catchment land use, and samples frequently exceeded trigger values for copper and zinc. Ryan Kam said that he would look into potential causes for higher copper and zinc concentrations and proposed that water quality control and assurance sampling should be continued.