2 Renmark to border LAP area assessment - EPA - Sa.gov.au

River Murray and Lower Lakes catchment risk assessment for water quality: Results and management options
1.2 Content of this report
Risks to water quality were assessed for the entire 640 km length of the River Murray, Lower Lakes and
Coorong in South Australia. This report presents the risk assessment results for eight LAP areas which
were used as the study consultation regions (Figure 1.1):
• Renmark to border
• Berri to Barmera
• Loxton to Bookpurnong
• Riverland West
• Mid Murray
• Mannum to Wellington
• Goolwa to Wellington
• Coorong District.
Consultation and reporting for the Berri-Barmera and Loxton-Bookpurnong LAP areas, and for the
Goolwa-Wellington and Coorong District LAP areas, were combined for efficiency of consultation: the two
Riverland LAP areas span either side of the river in a similar area, and the Lower Lakes and Coorong
areas spanned either side of the lakes. Hence this report has six LAP area results chapters, followed by a
chapter summarising these results and providing further discussion on potential management strategies
in the context of the entire study area.
A series of maps showing the risks to water quality for each environmental value is included on the
attached DVD. Key maps for each LAP area and each environmental value have been included in this
report as well as on the DVD to help locate particular maps of interest. Figure 1.2 is a guide for
interpreting the maps.
1.3 Brief description of method
A qualitative screening risk assessment approach was used to prioritise risks at a broad catchment scale.
For information on the methods used to derive the results contained in this report and interpretation of
maps see River Murray and Lower Lakes Catchment Risk Assessment for Water Quality: Introduction and
Methods.
Several significant facets (environmental values) of the river need protection from pollution and
management for overall water quality. The environmental values, which are the endpoints to which risk
is assessed, considered in this risk assessment project were:
• aquatic ecosystem health
• raw water supply 1
• recreational (including aesthetics).
For the purposes of the risk assessment, zones were created relating to where the different
environmental values were considered important 2 . The study identified and categorised sources of
potential harm (hazards) that pose a risk to water quality in these zones. Some examples of hazards
include stormwater outlets, flood-irrigated areas, horticulture areas, septic tanks and marinas. Each
1 Relates to the suitability of water for supply to a drinking water treatment plant
2 Aquatic ecosystem zones were established along the whole study area, raw water supply zones around the drinking
water offtakes, and recreational zones at the high-use recreational areas.
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