Background Information
Under the NAP and NHT, funding assistance for regions will be based on Regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) plans which are required to specify targets for the maintenance and improvement of the natural resources within these catchments, particularly in relation to salinity, water quality and biodiversity. These targets will be based on agreed national standards and progress towards improved natural resource condition will be assessed against them.
Water Quality Targets Online has been designed to assist regional groups to identify the environmental values of water and to set appropriate water quality targets for their catchments/region. These targets will be used in turn to guide investments, management and progress towards attainment of regional goals.
Water Quality Targets Online includes default targets derived from the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000), hereafter called the Water Quality Guidelines. The Water Quality Guidelines, provides comprehensive information and procedures for setting more specific water quality targets tailored for unique conditions for a range of pollutants or indicators and may be used to further customise water quality targets for local conditions. In some instances locally specific water quality targets for individual systems may already have been determined. In such cases, these locally specific targets should be used in preference to the default targets contained in Water Quality Targets Online.
When used in conjunction with Water Quality Targets Online, the Handbook, simplifies the task of setting water quality targets when preparing regional plans. It is not prescriptive and is intended as a tool to assist the planning process. It is anticipated that some regions or catchments may already be involved in developing regional plans and have set environmental values and water quality targets.
Regional NRM plans are required to identify targets for a set of indicators, including those for water quality, for assessing resource condition (or indicate why they are not applicable in particular catchments). Indicators for water quality include:
- Nutrients (Nitrogen and Phosphorus)
- Salinity
- Turbidity & Suspended Solids
- River condition, including Biological Indicators (when established)
Targets may be set for parameters in addition to the indicators identified above where they are relevant to specific water quality problems, such as water contamination by metals or pesticides. However, such additional targets are purely optional.
While the ideal is to have water quality targets set for local conditions, based on local information, this may in many cases be impractical. Therefore it is expected that default targets (identified using Water Quality Targets Online) will commonly be applied due to a lack of more locally specific data.
To set locally specific water quality targets, land management groups should consult the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality.
The default targets included within Water Quality Targets Online are derived from the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000).
Environmental Values
The first step in setting targets for water quality indicators is to establish the environmental values for a particular water body. Environmental values describe what we want and need to protect. They outline values and uses of the environment that are important for healthy ecosystems, public benefit, industry and health that require protection from the effects of pollution and waste discharges.
For water, the following environmental values may require protection:
- Aquatic ecosystems
- Primary industries (irrigation and general water uses, stock drinking water, aquaculture and human consumption of aquatic foods);:
- Recreation and aesthetics
- Drinking Water
- Industrial water, and
- Cultural and spiritual values
No specific water quality guidelines are provided for industrial water and cultural and spiritual values. These values will need to be determined on a case-by-case basis depending upon the specific issues and uses of water to be protected and should be considered by the community in the planning and management of their water resources. See the Handbook for a more detailed discussion.
When setting environmental values, the community and other stakeholders should define what they want to protect. For this reason, setting environmental values should be a process undertaken by, or in full consultation with, the community. Once these environmental values have been decided, water quality targets should be set to achieve or maintain these values.
Water quality targets are influenced by environmental, social and economic considerations, which in most cases will be unique to that region. Targets should therefore, where possible, have regard for current condition, and long-term trends in water quality.
Existing water quality data may be used to provide some idea of whether the desired environmental values could be achieved. Water quality targets for a water body are normally set by identifying the agreed environmental value that has the most stringent requirement.
Water Quality Targets Online does not identify default targets for all indicators for every environmental value. For example, default targets for phosphorus are specified on the basis of its significance to eutrophication (nutrient enrichment), rather than as its importance as a toxicant. Water Quality Targets Online therefore lists default targets for phosphorus for Aquatic Ecosystem Protection; Aquaculture and Human Consumption of Aquatic Foods only, and does not specify a target for phosphorus for, say, Drinking Water.
Water Quality Targets Online may specify default targets for more than one chemical form of some indicators. For example, while the indicators for nitrogen include Total Nitrogen, Water Quality Targets Online provides default targets for nitrate, nitrite, nitrogen oxides and ammonia. The significance of the various forms will vary depending upon its relative importance to the specific use of water (for example, nitrate is an important human health hazard in drinking water supplies).
In some cases, values are not available for particular indicators, and related chemical forms of some indicators may be specified.
Targets
Targets measure or guide progress towards an overall resource management goal or outcome. They should:
- define an acceptable, physical condition of catchment health;
- relate to the current ecological and water quality condition of the water body;
- be measurable and time-specific;
- relate to any existing targets established under statutory planning or environmental protection processes and policies;
- provide a focus for actions and investment; and
- be based on trend information, scientific studies or best available information, where possible.
Aspirational (long term) targets, Achievable Resource Condition targets and Management Action Targets are required under the NAP and NHT. Water Quality Targets Online is primarily aimed at assisting regional groups to set Resource Condition targets, acknowledging that aspirational targets will, by their very nature, require extensive consultation and consideration of the long term implications and economic and social costs of attainment.
For the purposes of Water Quality Targets Online, default targets are derived in accordance with the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000). Procedures for using reference or biological data to derive targets or for tailoring targets for specific local conditions are also described in these same Guidelines. However, it is more complex, and often more costly to do so, and requires locally derived data.
Key
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