River and stream water quality and ecology - Greater Wellington ...

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River and stream water quality and ecology in the Wellington region: State and trends on their first use in each section. The principal acronyms used are listed in Table 1.1. Table 1.1: List of main abbreviations used in this report Abbreviation Definition ANZECC Australia and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council DRP Dissolved reactive phosphorus E. coli Escherichia coli EPT Ephemeroptera-Plecoptera-Trichoptera FDR False Discovery Rate GWRC Greater Wellington Regional Council IBI Index of Biotic Integrity Amm N Ammoniacal nitrogen NIWA National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research NNN Nitrite-nitrate nitrogen (also known as total oxidised nitrogen) NZFFD New Zealand Freshwater Fish Database MCI Macroinvertebrate Community Index MfE Ministry for the Environment REC River Environment Classification RFP Regional Freshwater Plan RPS Regional Policy Statement RSoE Rivers State of the Environment SoE State of the Environment TN Total nitrogen TOC Total organic carbon TP Total phosphorus TSS Total suspended solids TV Trigger value (in relation to the ANZECC guidelines) USEPA United States Environmental Protection Authority WGN_DOCS-#1100598-V3 PAGE 3 OF 160
River and stream water quality and ecology in the Wellington region: State and trends 2. Overview of river and stream health monitoring in the Wellington region 2.1 Background Greater Wellington has routinely monitored surface water quality in the western half of the Wellington region since 1987 and in the Wairarapa since 1991. In the early years, this monitoring was effectively conducted under two separate monitoring programmes until a comprehensive review of the surface water quality monitoring programme was undertaken in 2002 (Warr 2002). Following this review, a large number of changes were implemented in September 2003 to improve the representativeness and quality of the information collected; changes included the number and location of monitoring sites, the range of variables monitored and both field and analytical methods (see Milne and Perrie 2005 for details). Since September 2003, the Rivers State of Environment (RSoE) monitoring programme has remained largely unchanged, with only minor changes to the existing suite of monitoring sites and variables (outlined later in Sections 2.3 through 2.5). However, in 2006 there was a change in analytical laboratory (for both water quality analyses and periphyton and macroinvertebrate identification). The scope of the programme has also recently increased, with assessments of macrophyte cover and habitat undertaken at selected sites in 2011. In addition, fish monitoring has been recently trialled at several sites. 2.2 Monitoring objectives The aims of Greater Wellington’s RSoE water quality monitoring programme are to: 1. Assist in the detection of spatial and temporal changes in fresh waters; 2. Contribute to our understanding of freshwater biodiversity in the region; 3. Determine the suitability of fresh waters for designated uses; 4. Provide information to assist in targeted investigations where remediation or mitigation of poor water quality is desired; and 5. Provide information required to determine the effectiveness of regional plans and policies. 2.3 Monitoring sites Water quality and ecosystem health are currently monitored at 55 river and stream sites (Figure 2.1, Appendix 1). These sites were chosen to represent the major land uses and human activities, and also the natural diversity of rivers and streams in the region (Warr 2002). The latter was determined using the River Environment Classification (REC) documented by Snelder et al. (2004). REC classifies different river and stream environments based on environmental factors, including climate, source-of-flow, geology and landcover. REC classes for each site can be found in Appendix 1 and information on REC environmental factors is provided in Appendix 2. PAGE 4 OF 160 WGN_DOCS-#1100598-V3
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River and stream water quality and
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Water quality (n=24) Periphyton (n=
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Appendix 1: Monitoring site details
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