Regional rivers water quality monitoring programme data report 2021

Report: TR 2022/33

Author: Aroha Salu

To effectively manage water quality, the regional rivers 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 Waikato Regional Council 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 provides information on the routine monthly monitoring of water quality at 110 locations across the Waikato region, and includes:

• year 2021 summary statistics tabulated by parameter and reported together
• spatial contour plots for four water quality parameters using spatial interpolation of the median of the previous 5 years
• summary tables identifying the number of samples meeting ‘satisfactory’ and ‘excellent’ water quality guidelines and standards.