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Waikato River Water Quality Monitoring Programme - Data Report 2020

TR 2021/23
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Report: TR 2021/23

Author: Noel Bates

Abstract

The report provides information on:


1. Routine monthly monitoring of water quality at 12 sites:

  • Year 2020 summary data tabulated by parameter for each location and reported with the median of the previous 5 years.
  • Key parameter graphs showing the average water quality for 2020 at each location, compared to results of the previous 5 years.
  • Summary tables identifying the number of samples meeting ‘satisfactory’ and ‘excellent’ water quality standards and guidelines.
  • Raw data for 2020.


2. Additional information is provided in the appendices on:

  • Flow (Appendix I).
    • The effect of flow is important to assessing water quality and making comparisons between years. Appendix I provides information on annual median flow at some locations for the previous 10 years.
  • Continuous monitoring data via Datasonde (Appendix II).
    • Plots of the Hamilton and Tuakau deployments undertaken during 2020 showing the level of diurnal and seasonal variation of selected parameters.
  • Water quality criteria (Appendix III)
    • Identifying the water quality parameters, guidelines, standards, and analytical methods used in the Waikato River water quality monitoring programme.
Table of contents
Acknowledgement i
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1 1
1.2 Report content 1
1.3 Water quality guidelines and standards 2
2 The Waikato River monitoring programme design 3
2.1 Sampling collection 3
2.2 Sample locations 3
2.3 Water quality parameters 5
2.4 Quality control, data storage and analysis 5
2.5 Reports 5
3 Results 6
3.1 Waikato River monitoring programme 6
3.1.1 Routine water quality monitoring 6
Summary statistics 7
Key parameter graphs 14
Comparison with water quality standards 18
Raw data 19
References 25
Appendix I 26
Flow information 26
Appendix II 27
Datasonde deployments: selected water quality parameters 27
Appendix III 37
Waikato River water quality parameters 38
Guidelines and standards 39
Analytical methods 40