Monitoring Water Quality
How water quality is monitored
The major water quality monitoring program in place in the Yarra catchment is Melbourne Water’s monitoring network (incorporating the EPA Victoria Fixed Site Network). Under this program, water quality is monitored monthly at 33 sites along the Yarra and its tributaries.
Sites are tested for the following water quality indicators: water temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity (conductivity), pH, nutrients (nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, Kjeldahl nitrogen, soluble reactive phosphorus and total phosphorus), faecal contamination (E. coli) and metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc).
This monitoring provides information on water quality in the Yarra, detects changes over time, and delivers information that is the basis for management decisions.
The program is designed to assess broad-scale, long-term trends in water quality (typically over eight to ten years). It is also used to assess progress against State Environmental Protection Policy (SePP) objectives, which are established and monitored by EPA Victoria.
This information complements more intensive and finer-scale river health surveys that contribute to the development of waterway management plans and other waterway protection and improvement decisions.
Melbourne Water also has a summer E. coli and bluegreen algae monitoring program to better understand the risks associated with recreation at key sites during the peak-use period (December to the end of March).
Data
Water Quality Data is provided each year in the Melbourne Water Social and Environment Report. Data from the 2005/06 report is available online. The data provided in this report has been assessed and collated over the financial year.
Water quality data is also available in a fact sheet providing summary statistics for each of the 72 stream monitoring sites (produced annually for the previous calendar year). The fact sheet is intended to provide a brief overview of water quality for that year and not, for example, to assess compliance with environment legislation (i.e. State environment protection policies). Download the latest fact sheet here (PDF 2407 kb) or access previous years.
Investigating faecal contamination
A three-year 'hotspots' investigation program is underway involving testing at 52 locations along the Yarra and its tributaries to identify hotspots of pollution in the river. The program is being led by the EPA and conducted by Melbourne Water.
Yarra Watch
The Yarra Watch program involves weekly testing for E. coli levels at 12 spots along the Yarra River from the Docklands to the upper reaches of Warburton. Another indicator organism, enterococci, is measured at six of the sites. Data collected together with rainfall results is used to advise on the suitability for recreational use. The results are collected by Melbourne Water and then used by EPA to provide a weekly update of water quality in the Yarra on their Yarra Watch website.
Further Information
Melbourne Water also provides further information on the condition of Melbourne's rivers and creeks through its Melbourne’s Rivers and Creeks 2004 report (PDF 1376.4 kb) and the Port Phillip and Westernport Regional River Health strategy available to download in chapters or as a single download (PDF 4.38mb).
Index of River Condition
Melbourne Water’s Index of River Condition (IRC) is designed to provide an overall integrated measure of the environmental condition of rivers. It is based on the Index of Stream Condition (ISC) developed by Department of Sustainability and Environment for rural rivers and creeks. The Department of Sustainability and Environment developed the ISC to provide an integrated measure of the environmental condition of the state of Victoria’s rural rivers and creeks.
The ISC has been modified to account for the urban rivers and creeks in Melbourne Water's operating area and includes data for all of the rivers and creeks that Melbourne Water manages.
It amalgamates information on the naturalness of the flow regime, water quality, condition of the channel and riparian zone and the invertebrate communities living in the river.
The index contains five sub-indices and provides a summary of the extent of change from natural or ideal conditions for each of the sub-indices:
- physical form (river bank and bed condition, presence of and access to physical habitat, artificial barriers)
- streamside zone (quality and quantity of streamside vegetation and condition of billabongs)
- hydrology (flow volume and seasonality of flow)
- water quality (key water quality indicators compared against Victorian Government environment protection policy water quality objectives)
- aquatic life (diversity of macro invertebrates).
Each sub-index is scored out of a maximum of 10, so that the overall score for the index will vary between a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 50. River condition is then allocated to one of five classifications: very poor, poor, moderate, good or excellent.
To view the current Index of River Condition in your area, check out the What's in my neighbourhood section of this site.