Water Quality Monitoring Program

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Water Quality Monitoring Program for Port
Phillip Bay Western Port
Rhys Coleman Sophie Bourgues Melbourne
Water Tim Fletcher Ana Deletic Monash
University
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Relationship to WQIP
Water Quality Improvement Plan
DSS and Monitoring
Water Quality Monitoring
Agriculture BMPs
Offsets
WSUD
Beaches
Working Group representatives MW, DSE, DPI, EPA,
CMA
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Project Overview

• Project Expectations
• Establish a pollutant loads monitoring program
  that will inform current and future loads
  monitoring in the region
• To track attainment of WQIP other key
  objectives
• Better measurement of loads
• Better characterising of pollutants
• Not directly addressing sources of pollution
• Link in with WQIP and other WQIP projects

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Project Overview
Loads Monitoring Review
Investigations Review
Concentrations Monitoring Review
Water Quality Monitoring Investigations Chapter
Water Quality Improvement Plan
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Project Overview

• The project involves 3 Stages
• Stage 1 engaging a consultant to
• undertake a review of existing pollutant loads
  monitoring arrangements and outputs
• consider existing and future loads monitoring
  needs
• make recommendations for a new loads program.
• Stage 2 12-month trial of new loads monitoring
  program
• Stage 3 review new program and make
  recommendations for on-going monitoring

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Current Loads Commitments
Key targets for pollutant load reduction
monitoring within the Port Phillip and
Westernport region are contained in SEPPs (PPB,
Yarra, Westen Port Bay Catchment) N, SS Port
Phillip Bay Environmental Management Plan (2002)
Required Melbourne Water to lead targeted
storm-event sampling sites since
2001-2002)   PP WP RRHS (2007) regional priority
to expand Melbourne Waters storm event sampling
to more accurately determine loads. N and SS
load reduction targets, and the requirement to
review loads monitoring, have also been captured
in the PP WP RCS (2004).
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Historical Load Monitoring Programs

• Nitrogen Loads to Port Phillip
• 7 high flow grab sampling sites
• Nitrogen and phosphorus
• Lower end of major inputs
• Coincide with existing routine sites
• Autosampler at Gardiners Creek
•  

• Westernport Suspended Solids
• Cardinia, Bunyip, Lang Lang
• Continuous turbidity flow
• Monthly TSS and other parameters
•  Lower Yarra Continuous Monitoring
•  Flow, EC, pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature
• Parslow, J., Sokolov, S. S. Murray (1999)
  Port Phillip Bay Baseline, Monitoring and
  Analysis for Nitrogen Load Reductions. Final
  Report. CSIRO Marine Research August 1999.

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Stage 1 Consultant Review

• Aim
• To establish a stream-based pollutant loads
  monitoring program in the Port Phillip and
  Western Port Catchments that will inform the
  effectiveness of catchment and stream management
  actions
•  
• Primary Objectives
• To review current water quality monitoring data
  for the Port Phillip and Western Port region and
  assess its ability to accurately determine
  nutrient or suspended solids loads within major
  waterways discharging to Port Phillip and Western
  Port
• To recommend modifications to the current loads
  monitoring program that will lead to better
  estimates of nutrient and suspended solids loads
  within major waterways discharging to Port
  Phillip and Western Port

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Consultant Brief Scope

• Secondary Objectives
• To identify opportunities and methodologies to
  enhance the predictive capacity of our water
  quality decision support systems (e.g. E2, MUSIC)
  through the targeted collection of pollutant
  loads data
• To outline loads monitoring methodologies
  required to assess the effectiveness of
  implementing key Water Quality Improvement Plan
  actions relating to Agricultural Best Management
  Practice and Water Sensitive Urban Design.
• Review undertaken by Drs Tim Fletcher Ana
  Deletic at Monash University

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Review Overview

• A Review of Melbourne Waters Pollutant Loads
  Monitoring Program for Port Phillip and Western
  Port (May 2006)
• 1. Review of relevant documents
• SEPPs
• Previous pollution loads assessments in the
  region
• (Parslow et al (1999), FILTER model, Duncan
  (2001), Pettigrove (1997), Fletcher Deletic
  (2006))
• Current state-of-the-art in loads monitoring
  
• 2. Additional water quality monitoring needs (ie
  2o Objectives)
• 3. Criteria and assessment methodology
• 4. Assessment of current LMP
• Statistical analysis of current LMP data
• Assessment against range of criteria
• 5. Proposed LMP

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• Examined
• can pollutant loads be measured using
  continuously measured turbidity if so, to with
  what certainty?
• how pollutant loads are / can be monitored using
  discrete sampling (frequency, how many storms,
  use of auto-samplers),
• adequacy of existing spatial distribution of
  monitoring within the region

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Assessment of Current LMP
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Key Findings

• Turbidity meters, if properly calibrated
  reliable, low-cost surrogate measure for TSS
  (uncertainty lt10).
• Continuous turbidity no good for other
  parameters.
• Must capture the widest possible range of event
  sizes often have not in past (remote, flashy
  sites).
• Continuously monitored turbidity data should be
  used at an interval of no more than 3 days,
  preferably daily.
• Number of events gt 50 and 25 for TSS and TN/TP
  respectively
• Discrete sampling of storm events (ie. using
  autosamplers) not necessary for long-term
  estimate of pollutant loads. Caveats other
  objectives, logistics
• Gaps Werribee River catchment, the south-east
  Peninsula, parts of the Westernport catchment.

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Key Findings

• Suggested improvements
• Clear and agreed documentation of objectives,
  methods and uses of data
• Strengthen Quality Assurance / Quality Control
  procedures site installation operation (esp.
  calibration), data validation, storage use
• Better assessment and incorporation of
  uncertainty

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Proposed Load Monitoring Program
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Desirable Program
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Progress to Date

• 13/14 sites active
• Continuous data at least for a month
• 1 storm event captured (12/13 sites) with
  success! Week end event, last Friday 5pm.
• Rain gauges on Melbourne Water website trigger
  sampling Autosamplers remotely triggered by
  phone
• Additional parameters (faecal indicators,
  biocides and hydrocarbons) which will guide
  indicator selection into future
• Many teething issues but that is the reason why
  we are running a trial period!
• Review scheduled in June 2007