2017-09-18 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                             18 SEPTEMBER 2017


3.    What are the Proposed Changes to the Environment Protection (Water) Policy
A full explanation of the proposed changes is included in the document titled: HAVE YOUR SAY
Consultation information South East Queensland draft water quality objectives for aquatic
ecosystem environmental values protection available at the below link:
https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/water/policy/pdf/documents/seq-2017/consultation-draft-wqreport-03-
june-2017.pdf
In summary, to overcome the issue of the criteria in Moderately Disturbed areas being based on
water quality results in undisturbed areas, the State has collected and statistically analysed 10
years worth of all available water quality data collected in all water types in South East
Queensland. Where the monitoring over the past 10 years shows that the existing water quality
criteria are not met for 50% of the time in all water types, then the State is nominating for review
the criteria for those water types in Moderately Disturbed areas. The review is intended to make
the criteria in Moderately Disturbed areas easier to meet by reflecting the existing situation in the
catchment. The review is for the water quality criteria to be better than what the best 50% of
samples have measured over the past 10 years. For the sites nominated for change, this will
require investment in the catchment to improve the water quality for 50% of the time to meet the
new water quality objectives.
The proposal is to only change criteria in Moderately Disturbed areas (i.e. developed or
agricultural areas) that cannot meet the criteria for 50% of the time. The proposal does not
propose to review water quality in undeveloped areas, nor does it propose to review the criteria
where the existing water quality is always better than the water quality objectives.


4.    What do the proposed changes mean for Noosa’s Waterways?
The proposed changes mean that:
    In the Moderately Disturbed areas of Cooroibah Catchment (ie. Ringtail Creek) the
      maximum concentration of Total Nitrogen will be allowed to increase by 20% from
      500ug/L to 640ug/L and Ammonium N will be able to increase from 20ug/L to 25ug/L.
      generally speaking these increases may contribute to algal growth where all other
      conditions are suitable. Ringtail Creek has not been checked to determine whether there is
      visual evidence of any nutrient stress showing in the creek. These limits will mean that the
      existing situation will need to be improved for 50% of the time;
    the clarity of waters flowing from Moderately Disturbed areas in Cooroibah Catchment
      flowing to Lake Cooroibah, will be legally allowed to become slightly visually murkier than
      the clarity Lake Cooroibah is supposed to achieve. The change in the quality of water
      flowing to Lake Cooroibah will be from no worse than 8NTU to no worse than 12NTU. This
      change in cloudiness is shown visually below. It is relevant to note that the proposed
      criteria is actually an improvement of what has actually been measured in the Lake over
      the past 10 years where Lake Cooroibah has been visually murkier than 12NTU for 50% of
      the time, measuring up to 21NTU 20% of the time.




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