2017-09-18 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                    18 SEPTEMBER 2017


The Policy contains provision to allow water quality objectives criteria to be amended where they
are found to be inappropriate. To achieve protection of the Environmental Values, The Policy
allows for:
 “lower level of protection of the environmental values if otherwise there would be unacceptable
economic or social impacts on the community and the water quality objectives are an
improvement on the existing water quality.”
The State of Queensland is therefore proposing to amend physical chemical (phys-chem) water
quality objectives that are deemed inappropriate to achieve protection of the Environmental
Values of Moderately Disturbed South East Queensland Waters.
The Policy is available at this link:
https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/E/EnvProWateP09.pdf


2.    Rational for Proposed Changes to the Environment Protection (Water) Policy Water
      Quality Objectives
Phys-chem parameters affect how clean waterways look, algae growth, olfactory impacts and
fish health. The phys-chem characteristics of waters that are being reviewed, and their general
influence on water quality/receiving environment is detailed in the table below:

Phys Chem Parameter        Generic Influence on Water Quality
Nutrients                  Algal growth, affects oxygen availability and therefore biota health and the
                           olfactory environment.
Total Suspended Solids     Affects visual appearance of water and fish health
electrical conductivity    Saltiness
chlorophyll-a              Is an indicator of algal growth
dissolved oxygen           Affects how well aquatic fauna can breathe.
pH.                        Affects water chemistry including bioavailability/toxicity of metals and cations
                           within the water and also breeding success of flora and fauna.

Moderately Disturbed waters are in areas that are developed with farms or urban areas. The
areas proposed for Moderately Disturbed waters include all areas on the map provided in
Attachment 2 that are not hatched (i.e. areas that are not High Ecological Value or Slightly
Disturbed waters).
The existing water quality objectives for “Moderately Disturbed” areas are based on the water
quality recorded in undisturbed areas. The existing criteria for Moderately Disturbed waters is for
them to always record a better quality than the worst 20% allowed to occur in waters in the
undisturbed catchment. (i.e. the maximum for moderately disturbed waters is the 80th%ile of the
undisturbed waters)
Given phys-chem parameters are influenced by land based inputs/land management, it is
expected that moderately disturbed catchments are associated with a worse quality of water
compared to undisturbed catchments. It is then unrealistic to never have a water quality reading
worse than what the undisturbed catchment experiences for 20% of the time.
Enforcement of current water quality objectives in Moderately Disturbed catchments is
considered unreasonable and changes are proposed to allow the water quality objectives to be
more defendable in a legal situation and to increase the likelihood of investments to protect the
Environmental Values in Moderately Disturbed catchments.




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