Mary River Water OctoberOctober 10 10-11 Quality Catchment 2017 Crawl The 2017 Catchment Crawl was held on the 10th and 11th Creating an October and included testing of sites along the Mary River annual and seven of its tributaries, plus one site on the Susan snapshot of River. Overall, 32 sites were sampled over the two days. water quality in Testing includes basic physical chemistry, E. coli, total the Mary River suspended solids, nitrogen and phosphorus. catchment Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee 25 Stewart Terrace Gympie Q 4570 www.mrccc.org.au [email protected] Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction and background ......................................................................................................... 3 1.1 History of Mary River Catchment Crawls ................................................................................ 3 1.2 Weather and river conditions relevant to 2017 crawl ............................................................ 5 2 Methods .......................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Sites ......................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Equipment ............................................................................................................................. 12 2.3 Parameters ............................................................................................................................ 12 2.4 Data interpretation ............................................................................................................... 13 3 Results and discussion .................................................................................................................. 15 3.1 Temperature ......................................................................................................................... 15 3.1.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 16 3.1.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 19 3.1.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 19 3.1.4 Mary River Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 20 3.1.5 Comment on long term temperature trends ................................................................ 20 3.2 pH .......................................................................................................................................... 23 3.2.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 23 3.2.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 26 3.2.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 27 3.2.4 Mary River Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 28 3.3 Electrical Conductivity (EC) ................................................................................................... 29 3.3.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 29 3.3.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 30 3.3.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 31 3.3.4 Mary River Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 32 3.4 Turbidity and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) .......................................................................... 33 3.4.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 33 3.4.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 36 3.4.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 37 3.4.4 Mary River estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 38 3.5 Dissolved Oxygen (DO) .......................................................................................................... 39 Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee i 3.5.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 39 3.5.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 41 3.5.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 42 3.5.4 Middle Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ............................................ 42 3.6 Nitrogen ................................................................................................................................ 43 3.6.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 44 3.6.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 49 3.6.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 52 3.6.4 Mary River Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 54 3.7 Phosphorus ........................................................................................................................... 55 3.7.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 55 3.7.2 North Western Lowland Waters (G6) ........................................................................... 59 3.7.3 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 61 3.7.4 Mary River Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 62 3.8 E. coli ..................................................................................................................................... 63 3.8.1 Southern Lowland Waters (G5) ..................................................................................... 63 3.8.2 North Eastern Lowland waters (G8) .............................................................................. 65 3.8.3 Mary River Estuary – High Environmental Value Waters (G2) ...................................... 65 3.9 Aquatic weeds ....................................................................................................................... 66 4 References .................................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix A - Catchment Crawl Itinerary .............................................................................................. 68 Appendix B - Results ............................................................................................................................. 70 Appendix C – River Flow Plots ............................................................................................................... 71 Table of Tables Table 1 Overview of all MRCCC-led Catchment Crawls .......................................................................... 4 Table 2 Summary of rainfall prior to Crawl and ambient air temperature during the Crawl ................. 5 Table 3 Gauging station locations, river heights and flow rates ............................................................. 6 Table 4 Details of all sites tested .......................................................................................................... 11 Table 5 Details of water tests performed at each Catchment Crawl site ............................................. 13 Table 6 Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee water quality guideline values ................... 14 Table 7 HEV water (G2) temperature results ........................................................................................ 20 Table 8 Summary of Riparian Condition Assessment results ............................................................... 24 Table 9 HEV waters (G2) pH results ...................................................................................................... 28 Table 10 HEV waters (G2) EC results ..................................................................................................... 32 Table 11 HEV waters (G2) Turbidity and TSS results ............................................................................. 38 ii Table 12 HEV waters (G2) Dissolved Oxygen results ............................................................................ 42 Table 13 South East Queensland region water quality guideline values for nitrogen parameters ...... 44 Table 14 High Environmental Value waters (G2) nitrogen results ....................................................... 54 Table 15 South East Queensland region water quality guideline values for phosphorus parameters 55 Table 16 High Environmental Value waters (G2) phosphorus results .................................................