River Murray Water Quality Monitoring Program

Introduction

The River Murray Water Quality Monitoring Program monitors physico-chemical and biological parameters at 35 sites along the River Murray from the headwaters of the River Murray at Jingellic down to Lake Alexandrina at Milang with a number of sites extending up into the tributaries. This long term monitoring program, which began in 1978, provides baseline data for trend analysis and informs management of the River system.

Background

The Commission's statutory responsibilities in regard to water quality evolved from an expression of concern by the South Australian Premier in 1973 of the quality and quantity of water available in the River Murray. This resulted in the establishment of the River Murray Working Party which recommended amending the River Murray Waters Agreement to broaden the function of the Commission and design an interim water quality monitoring program which commenced in 1978. The amendments to the Agreement were finalised in 1982 and included the powers to monitor and investigate, coordinate information, set objectives and to make representations regarding water quality.

Current Program

The program has undergone a number of reviews since 1978. These reviews outline methods and results, characterise the River Murray in terms of the attributes being monitored, present trend analysis and make recommendations for future monitoring. As a result of these reviews the Program has been periodically improved. In the most recent review by Lawrence and Paterson (2005) (see top of page for a link to a copy) a number of improvements to the Program were recommended and subsequently approved including refinements to the objectives. The new objectives aim to better reflect the nature of this type of surveillance monitoring, update the terminology and better reflect modern management processes as well as further evolve the approach of undertaking special studies to meet specific information and knowledge needs.

The new objectives are;

To periodically report and assess water quality to understand variability and determine trends.
To provide data which will assist reporting against water quality objectives in the River Murray and will inform management of the River system.
To undertake additional investigations to characterise and understand the factors and processes affecting water quality and the river ecosystem, and inform management.

Figure 1. Current River Murray Water Quality Monitoring Program

Availablity of Data

By clicking on the above map, you move to a clickable map were you can click on the site of interest enabling you to view a table which outlines the water quality data available for that site.

To request data, email the details of the data you require (eg site, parameter and time period) to datarequests[at] mdbc.gov.au. There is a minimum one month lag time from the sampling date with larger lag times for the biological monitoring results.