EASTERN CAPE YORK WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN Cape York Natural Resource Management | 2016 CONteNts Note to the reader ............... 1 Referencing this document ............... 1 General disclaimer ............... 1 Acknowledgements ............... 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............... 2 Chapter 1: Summary ............... 6 Introduction ............... 6 Purpose of the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan ............... 7 Key principles of the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan ............... 9 The planning region ............... 9 Characteristics of eastern Cape York ............... 13 Community consultation and science synthesis ............... 16 Environmental Values ............... 17 Current condition of water quality ............... 27 Freshwater and estuary water quality ............... 27 Freshwater and estuary water quality guidelines and targets ............... 27 Annual loads of suspended sediments and nutrients ............... 32 Marine water quality ............... 35 Current condition of ecosystem health ............... 38 Estuarine systems ............... 38 Coastal wetlands ............... 38 Coral reefs ............... 38 Potential Biodiversity Impact Matrix ............... 39 Seagrass ............... 41 Dugongs ............... 41 Sediment and Cape York ............... 42 Relative risk of water quality ............... 44 Zones of influence of river flood plumes ............... 46 Relative risk of water quality to important habitat features ............... 47 Water Quality Objectives, Water Quality Targets and Management Action Targets ............... 50 Target summary ............... 51 Super Gauge technology to accurately measure pollutant loads delivered to the Great Barrier Reef ....... 57 Catchment land use, disturbances and pollution sources ............... 59 Catchment land use ............... 59 Grazing and nature and cultural conservation ............... 60 Agriculture ............... 60 Urban ............... 61 Mining ............... 61 Native forestry ............... 61 Ports and shipping ............... 62 Disturbances ............... 62 Roads ............... 62 Fire ............... 62 Framework for integrating monitoring ............... 113 Feral animals ............... 63 Monitoring adoption of management practices ............... 114 Weeds ............... 63 Validating management practice – water quality relationships ............... 115 Management actions to improve water quality ............... 67 Paddock and property scale monitoring ............... 115 Grazing ............... 69 Grazing management ............... 115 Nature and cultural conservation ............... 71 Fire management ............... 116 Agriculture (horticulture, cropping and plantation forestry) ............... 73 Main roads (council and state) ............... 116 Native forestry ............... 75 Secondary roads, tracks and fence lines on properties ............... 116 Urban, rural residential and roads ............... 76 Horticulture management ............... 116 Mining ............... 78 Gullies ............... 117 Ports and shipping ............... 78 Feral animals ............... 117 Wetlands ............... 79 Urban and peri-urban (rural residential) ............... 117 Gullies ............... 81 Forest logging ............... 117 Roads, tracks, fence lines and firebreaks ............... 83 Sub-catchment scale monitoring ............... 117 Impact of main and council roads on water quality on Cape York Peninsula and the Great Barrier Reef ... 85 Nested paddock to sub-catchment case studies (BACI or paired catchment studies) ............... 118 Fire ............... 87 Sub-catchment water quality monitoring ............... 118 Feral animals – cattle, horses and pigs ............... 89 Monitoring of agricultural water extraction and retention impacts ............... 119 Weeds ............... 91 Urban / peri-urban / harbours ............... 119 Chapter 2: Implementation Plan ............... 93 Mining ............... 119 Priority focus for implementation ............... 93 Visitor impacts ............... 119 Northern section (Jacky Jacky, Olive Pascoe and Lockhart) ............... 93 Catchment scale monitoring ............... 120 Central section (Stewart, Hann and Normanby) ............... 93 Land use intensity and disturbance mapping ............... 120 Southern section (Jeanie and Endeavour) ............... 94 End-of-catchment water quality monitoring: The Super Gauge approach ............... 120 Strategic and staged approach to implementation ............... 95 Catchment modelling ............... 121 Climate change defines our timeline for implementation ............... 95 Validate freshwater and marine water quality – ecosystem health relationships ............... 121 GBR-wide and global issues that influence implementation ............... 96 Freshwater aquatic ecosystems ............... 121 Cape York Catchments to Coral Partnership ............... 96 Marine monitoring ............... 123 Cape York Catchments to Coral management committee ............... 96 Cost of implementing the Integrated Monitoring Program ............... 128 Cape York Catchments to Coral working groups ............... 98 Chapter 4: Background to Water Quality Improvement Planning in the GBR ............... 130 Working group processes ............... 99 Purpose of a Water Quality Improvement Plan ............... 130 Implementation costings ............... 99 Legislative framework for WQIP development ............... 131 Gully management ............... 100 WQIPs and Healthy Waters Management Plans ............... 131 Grazing management ............... 100 State Planning Policy State Interest - water quality ............... 132 Agriculture management ............... 101 Chapter 5: Environmental Values ............... 133 Wetland management ............... 101 Mapping / GIS base layers ............... 135 Local government road management ............... 101 Progress of scheduling Environmental Values and Water Quality Objectives ............... 135 Urban management ............... 102 Chapter 6: Community and Science Consultation Process ............... 140 Fire management ............... 102 The planning team ............... 140 Pest management ............... 102 Consultation for the Cape York region ............... 140 Adaptive management ............... 103 Walking the Landscape ............... 143 Reasonable assurance ............... 103 Science synthesis ............... 144 Quantified cost effective reduction targets for the Normanby Basin ............... 105 References ............... 147 Chapter 3: Integrated Monitoring Program ............... 110 Appendices ............... 153 Background ............... 110 Adaptive management ............... 112 Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Published by: Cape York Natural Resource Management Ltd. Acknowledgements Eastern Cape York and the Water Quality preventing further disturbance of catchments from new © Cape York Natural Resource Management Ltd. 2016 Improvement Plan developments is also critical if we wish to maintain The Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan was Cape York Natural Resource Management Ltd supports and funded through the Australian Government Reef Programme the relatively good river water quality and ensure that encourages the dissemination and exchange of its information. and has been developed in partnership with the Queensland The Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement the northern GBR does not become degraded like the The copyright in this publication is licensed under a Creative Government. The Eastern Cape York Water Quality Plan (WQIP) was developed in consultation with central and southern GBR. Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY) licence. Improvement Plan will assist with informing priorities under the Reef 2050 Plan. scientists, Traditional Owners and the wider community Under this licence you are free, without having to seek our to identify water quality issues and actions to maintain Environmental Values and Aquatic permission, to use this publication in accordance with the Cape York Natural Resource Management and South Cape licence terms. York Catchments would like to thank the following people and improve the rivers, wetlands and reefs of Ecosystem Condition for their support in developing the Eastern Cape York Water eastern Cape York. The Plan has been designed to You must keep intact the copyright notice and attribute Cape Quality Improvement Plan. support the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan Environmental Values (EVs) define the uses of water York Natural Resource Management Ltd as the source of the publication. For welcoming us onto their country and for entrusting us (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015), which sets targets by humans or aquatic ecosystems and help to prioritise with their knowledge and information, we humbly thank the to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution to the Great management goals for specific rivers and uses. The For more information on this licence, visit many Traditional Owners, graziers, farmers and other land Barrier Reef (GBR). The planning region for the WQIP human-use EVs for eastern Cape York include drinking http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en managers of eastern Cape York. includes all the catchments that drain to the northern water (low to medium use), stock water (low to medium Note to the reader For written content used in this report and supporting Great Barrier