General

In Australia, water-based recreation is valued and enjoyed by most of the community. Warm temperatures mean many Australians seek the recreational benefits of the nations' coastal waters, estuaries, lakes and rivers. Recreational activities are divided into three categories:

1. Primary Contact, such as swimming, water skiing and diving in which the user comes into direct contact with the water;
2. Secondary contact, such as boating, wading and fishing where there is less frequent body contact with the water; and
3. Passive recreational use, for visual and aesthetic enjoyment where there is no contact.

The quality of waters used for primary and secondary contact recreation needs to be high in order to protect the health of the public involved. High quality is also important as part of scenic quality and to retain aesthetics. The relatively poor quality of many rivers and lakes and the incrementally declining quality of many estuarine and coastal waters is of concern to all and a critical issue for management.

Key Issues

The quality of waters used for recreation is affected by pollution from point and diffuse sources and from pollution incidents such as oil and chemical spills. Because the majority of Australians live near the coast the greatest pressures from people and industry is on the coastal and estuarine areas. Urban stormwater and industrial discharges and sewage effluent from coastal cities and towns can transfer chemical contaminants (nutrients and toxicants), refuse and pathogens into the receiving waters. In more rural catchments poor land management and disturbance of potential acid sulfate soils leading to acid run-off have highly adverse impacts. Algal blooms degrade recreational amenity, can be toxic to humans and cause allergic responses; they have major detrimental consequences for recreational fishing and tourism.

Protocols

The ANZECC and ARMCANZ guidelines focus on bacteria and other pathogens, nuisance organisms such as algae, worms, midges, and some physico-chemical attributes (visual clarity, pH, temperature) toxic chemicals and surface films. The guideline values are summarised here:

For methods for the analysis of water pollutants consult the EPA (1998) reference: Approved methods for the sampling and analysis of water pollutants in New South Wales. The methods are based on the American Public Health Association, USEPA standard methods and the Standards Association of Australia.

Core protocols are those for the following indicators:

Algal blooms
Algal species density and diversity
Bacteria monitoring
Beachwatch
Chlorophyll a
Physical and chemical
Protozoan monitoring

Supplementary protocols / information relate to:

Acid sulphate soils
Aquatic ecosystem health
Catchment combing
Desktop monitoring using satellite data
Diatom monitoring
Groundwater
Oil and other spills
On-site sewage monitoring
Profiling
Real time Chlorophyll monitoring
Salinity monitoring
Primary productivity
Urban stormwater

Contacts - Core Agencies

The main organisations with formal responsibilities include the following.

• Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC (NSW); incorporating the former EPA, NPWS and RBG) undertakes the monitoring programs Beachwatch and Harbourwatch. These provide the community with daily information on the risks of stormwater and sewage pollution at beaches. Phone: 1800 036 677
• NSW State Algal Coordinating Committee (SACC) implements the NSW Algal Management Strategy that aims to minimise the occurrence and impacts of algal blooms in NSW. They provide guidelines for cyanobacteria concentrations in recreational waters and oversee the research and monitoring role of the Regional Algal Coordinating Committee.

Other organisations involved

• Sydney Water Corporation (SWC) undertakes performance assessment monitoring programs relating to its responsibilities for wastewater and stormwater services to the Sydney, Blue Mountains and Illawarra regions and management of coastal and inland sewage treatment plants discharging to the ocean or to inland rivers. SWC also coordinates Streamwatch community based monitoring.
• Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources have coordinated a recreational water assessment and management program within the Hawkesbury-Neapean catchment involving some 13 Councils and a number of agencies as part of the Hawkesbury-Nepean Integrated Water Monitoring Framework.
• Hunter Water Corporation undertakes performance assessment monitoring programs relating to its responsibilities for inland wastewater and also an ocean environmental monitoring program.
• Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) maintain a database of reported marine and estuarine pollution incidents based on reports from the general public and commercial and government organisations.

Case Studies