Water Quality
Protecting our precious water resources is essential to our natural Territory lifestyle. Sustainable development in the Territory requires maintaining and enhancing the Territory’s surface and groundwater quality.
Water quality is currently protected by the adoption of the community based beneficial use declarations and environmental values for each water body under the Water Act.
Water quality management goals, appropriate indicators of water quality and water quality objectives are developed to protect the required values and beneficial uses. Water quality objectives are the “numbers” which reflect the various physicochemical indicators of water quality (such as turbidity, pH, salt levels, and nutrient levels) that need to be maintained to sustain a particular value or use for water. Water quality monitoring is undertaken in the Territory as a partnership between industry, government and the community to assess whether water quality values and uses are being maintained.
Water quality monitoring can be in the form of physical and chemical testing undertaken in laboratories, or can be undertaken using biological indicators such as the AUSRIVAS rapid biological assessment system (please see aquatic health publications for more information). Community groups such as Greening Australia undertake water quality testing to help manage our water resources.
Water pollution can be grouped into two main components –point source pollution, or pollution from a single industry such as a sewage treatment plant, and diffuse source pollution, or low level pollution from large areas that is carried by runoff from bare soils, roads, and other areas subject to poor water management.
Point source pollution produced by large industries is regulated by waste discharge licences that set discharge limits, and establish mixing zones and environmental monitoring programs to verify the discharge limits are being met. Draft environmental guidelines for waste discharge management are available on request to the EPA to provide a framework for risk management, mixing zone management and environmental monitoring. Diffuse source pollution is managed through industry codes of practice and environmental guidelines.
