Baseline suspended-sediment, solute, EC and turbidity characteristics for the Ngarradj catchment, Northern Territory, and the impact of mine construction

Supervising Scientist Report 179
KG Evans, DR Moliere, MJ Saynor, WD Erskine & MG Bellio, 2004
Department of the Environment and Heritage 2004
ISSN 1325-1554
ISBN 0 642 24393 X

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Summary

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A stream gauging network in the Ngarradj catchment, Northern Territory, was established to determine stream baseline conditions to monitor impacts of the Jabiluka mine construction site. Data on stream suspended sediment concentration, electrical conductivity (EC) and turbidity were collected for four wet seasons (1998*2002). The network design enabled the influence of dry season fires on stream suspended sediment concentration to be observed. Water quality trigger values were established using upstream percentiles and a BACIP design using monthly median values. There was very low frequency exceedence of the 99.7th percentile trigger level, however, it cannot be definitively stated that this was due to mine site construction. A late dry season fire occurred contemporaneously with site construction confounding experimental design and elevated sediment loads resulting from the fire may have masked mine site impact. The data set provides good baseline information for future assessment at Jabiluka and demonstrates the need to view measured parameter values on a catchment-wide basis with knowledge of rainfall, discharge and fire distribution.

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Contents, Executive summary (ssr179-contents.pdf - 224 KB)
Sections 1 to 3 - Introduction, Study site, Methods (ssr179-sections1-3.pdf - 348 KB)
Section 4.1 - Measured parameter values - Coarse suspended-sediment (ssr179-section4-1.pdf - 198 KB)
Section 4.2 - Measured parameter values - Fine suspended-sediment (ssr179-section4-2.pdf - 262 KB)
Section 4.3 - Measured parameter values - Solutes (ssr179-section4-3.pdf - 234 KB)
Section 4.4 - Measured parameter values - Electrical Conductivity (ssr179-section4-4.pdf - 182 KB)
Section 4.5 - Measured parameter values - Turbidity (ssr179-section4-5.pdf - 1294 KB)
Section 5 - Water quality trigger values to assess impact (ssr179-section5.pdf - 264 KB)
Section 6 - Conclusions (ssr179-section6-conclusions.pdf - 139 KB)
Section 7 - References (ssr179-section7-references.pdf - 125 KB)
Appendix A - Coarse suspended-sediment concentration data (ssr179-app-a.pdf - 493 KB)
Appendix B - Fine suspended-sediment concentration data (ssr179-app-b.pdf - 484 KB)
Appendix C - Solute concentration data (ssr179-app-c.pdf - 256 KB)
Appendix D - Electrical conductivity data (ssr179-app-d.pdf - 497KB)
Appendix E - Turbidity data (ssr179-app-e.pdf - 497 KB)

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