Draft Manning River Catchment and Estuary and Catchment Management Program 2021-2031 - Main document

4.3.2

Water quality results in the freshwater catchment

MidCoast Council’s Water Services team undertakes monthly water quality monitoring at six locations in the Manning freshwater catchment. Using this data to characterise water quality within the catchment is challenging due to its large and diverse geography, its dynamic nature and the relative paucity of water quality data compared to the scale of the system. Even at the sub-catchment spatial scale landscape influences such as riparian vegetation condition, landscape modification, and land-use cause great variation in water quality. Nevertheless, a review of past investigations along with existing water quality information provides some understanding of water quality characteristics in the Manning. The results below collate 4-years of data from 2015-2018, recorded at the water monitoring station at the Bootawa offtake in the Manning River downstream from the confluence of Dingo Creek (Figure 17). The discussion presents key characteristics of ecosystem stressors including nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), turbidity, and an ecological indicator chlorophyll-a. River flow is presented against these key characteristics because the flow rate influences water quality. As catchment specific thresholds for these analytes are yet to be determined for the Manning catchment, the default ANZECC aquatic ecosystem triggers for lowland east flowing coastal rivers have been used as a benchmark. Figure 17: The sampling location for water quality data

Draft Manning River Catchment and Estuary and Catchment Management Program 2021-2031 - Main document

Articles inside

Figure 39 MidCoast Council Organisational Structure

Appendix 6: MCC land-use strategies aligned to the CM SEPP objectives

Implementation Streams

Appendix 2: The Public Participation Spectrum

13. Bibliography

12. Proposed amendments to the CM SEPP

11.3 The Manning River ECMP Research Program

11.1 MERI for the Manning River, Estuary and Catchment

7. Management Actions

6.15 Systems thinking: the interaction between issues

10. Coastal Zone Emergency Sub-Plan

6.13 Sewerage and Septic System Pathogens

Figure 33: The Manning River floodplain, 20 March 2021

Figure 32: Cattle on the riverbank is a common sight

Table 4: Key impacts associated with water pollution from diffuse-source runoff

Figure 25: Estuary with negative impacts vs well-managed estuary

Figure 27: Cattai Wetlands

Figure 26: Conceptual diagram of the Greenhouse Effect

Figure 24: The relationship between activities, stressors and ecological impacts

Figure 22: Risk ratings for sediment and nutrient loading in drainage units

Table 2: Subcatchments posing the highest risk to ecological and community values

Figure 21: Stock intensity in the catchment

Figure 18: Manning River TN and TP readings from 2015-18

Figure 17: The sampling location for water quality data

Figure 9: The Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework

Figure 15: National Parks make up18.5% of the Manning catchment

Figure 14: Program Logic Model

Figure 12: Values our community ascribed to each subcatchment

Figure 11: The consultation program

Figure 16: Water quality monitoring sites in the estuary

Figure 10: Option for the Manning River ECMP Governance Structure

Figure 7: The five stages of a Coastal Management Program