Regional Rivers Water Quality Monitoring Programme: Data Report 2007

TR 2008/19
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Report: TR 2008/19

Author: Stuart Beard

Abstract

To effectively manage water quality, the Regional River monitoring programme addresses the following questions:

  1. What is the quality of the water now?
  2. Why is the water of the observed level of quality?
  3. Is water quality getting better or worse? If so - what makes it change?
  4. How can we improve the quality, ecological health and integrity of the region’s rivers and streams?

The monitoring information allows Environment Waikato to:

  • Determine compliance with classification standards.
  • Assess the suitability of the resource for various beneficial uses and values of the
    water.
  • Monitor the impact of major discrete point source discharges on water quality.
  • Monitor the impacts of diffuse discharges on water quality.
  • Provide a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of resource management measures.

This dataset is invaluable for the evaluation of the region’s rivers: their state, the pressures on them and our response to these pressures. We need to continue to gather comprehensive, reliable and good quality data on the Region’s rivers to protect and enhance their values into the future.

This report is the 13th since the implementation of the Regional Rivers Monitoring Programme (RERIMP) in 19931 and follows the format of the previous data report (Beard, 2007).

Regional Rivers Water Quality Monitoring Programme: Data Report 2007 [PDF, 1.2 MB]

Contents
  Acknowledgement i
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Report Content 1
1.3 Water Quality Guidelines and Standards 1
2 Regional Rivers Monitoring Design 2
2.1 Sampling Locations 2
2.2 Sample Collection 6
2.3 Water Quality Parameters 6
2.4 Quality Control, Data Storage and Analysis 6
2.5 Reports 6
3 Results 7
3.1 Regional Rivers Monitoring Programme Summary Statistics 7
3.2 Regional Rivers Monitoring Programme Comparison with Water Quality Guidelines and Standards 27
  References 30
  Appendix I: Water Quality Guidelines and Standards 31
  Appendix II: Water Quality Monitoring Parameters 32
  Field Instruments and Analytical Methods 32
  Regional Rivers Water Quality Monitoring Parameters 32
  Regional Rivers Monitoring - Water Quality Parameters & Analytical Methods of Analysis 33


Footnotes

  1. Waikato River reported on separately — see Beard, 2007 (in prep).