Water Quality Guidelines for Moreton Bay
Forming the foundation for future work to quantify relationships between ecological assets and measurable water quality parameters within Moreton Bay and its estuaries.
Identifying water quality objectives and parameters for prioritised ecological assets in Moreton Bay and its Estuaries.This workshop and document bring together the expertise of a dozen leading scientists on habitats within Moreton Bay to produce a realistic and quantified picture of what a “livable waterway” looks like.
The Environmental Protection (Water and Wetland Biodiversity) Policy 2019 consists of water quality objectives (WQOs) that are set to be renewed and reviewed every 5 years.
WQOs are the long-term water quality goals set to ensure waterways' current and desired environmental values are sustained or enhanced. Presently, it is not clear how aquatic ecosystem WQOs for Moreton Bay relate to the ecological assets of the Bay. This project aims to scope a pathway to address this knowledge gap.
These reviewed ecologically relevant WQOs will be proposed in the next round of revisions of the EPWWB Policy 2019.
The project focuses on:
- Reviewing and workshopping ways to improve current approaches to defining ecological goals.
- Reviewing and workshopping the minimum water quality requirements in Moreton Bay.
- Conducting a workshop on a suite of Ecologically Relevant Water Quality Outcomes based on established minimum water requirements, to be proposed for the next review of the Environmental Protection (Water and Wetland Biodiversity) Policy 2019.
What we are doing
Establishing ecological endpoints and ecological-based water quality objectives for Moreton Bay and estuaries.
The project runs for three years and involves:
- Identifying and prioritising ecological assets within Moreton Bay and its estuaries to be protected and enhanced.
- Scoping the process and available information/data to determine the relationship between ecological assets and measurable water quality parameters.
- A review of the validity of current conceptual models.
- Where possible, identify water quality thresholds that support the protection and enhancement of ecological assets.
Measuring success
The project will provide initial work towards establishing ecological endpoints and ecological-based water quality objectives for Moreton Bay and its estuaries and deliver a report identifying the next steps required to achieve a finalised set of water quality objectives for the identified assets.
More details the project will provide:
- An overview of the current water quality management framework in South East Queensland (SEQ).
- A review of the process and information used to define environmental values (EVs) scheduled in the Environmental Protection (Waters and Wetland Biodiversity) Policy 2019.
- A review of the definition of ‘aquatic ecosystem health’ for Moreton Bay and its estuaries.
- Review of key habitats, species, threats, and stressors.
- Prioritisation of key habitats and species in the context of achieving aquatic ecosystem health status.
- A review of the process to define resource condition targets and/or management goals for prioritised key habitats and species for Moreton Bay and its estuaries.
- A review of the technical steps required to establish water quality thresholds for prioritised key habitats and species.
Overall, the increased knowledge of the relationships between water quality and ecological assets will address stakeholder feedback, address a key knowledge gap, and improve future management practices and outcomes for South East Queensland waters.
Why this project is important
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Water quality objectives (WQOs) scheduled under the Environmental Protection (Water and Wetland Biodiversity) Policy 2019 are currently under revision for South East Queensland. WQOs are the long-term water quality goals set to ensure waterways' current and desired environmental values are sustained or enhanced. Moreton Bay supports a diversity of habitats that provide social, economic, and natural ecosystem values. The Bay receives inputs of contaminants from rivers and point sources. Reducing and mitigating increasing pressures on water quality under projected increases in population is fundamental to ensure the values of Moreton Bay and its estuaries are maintained into the future. Presently, it is not clear how aquatic ecosystem WQOs for Moreton Bay relate to the ecological assets of the Bay. For example, the data-driven approach to setting aquatic ecosystem WQOs does not necessarily consider the minimum requirement for protecting or enhancing the aquatic communities within the Bay. Water quality objectives set without consideration of minimum requirements run the risk of degradation of those values, even if water quality in the waterway meets the objectives. This project aims to scope a pathway to address this knowledge gap. The outcome of the project will be a report identifying the current state of knowledge relevant to ecological endpoints for Moreton Bay (and its estuaries) and the next steps required to develop ecologically relevant water quality targets based on the prioritised ecological assets for this region, including knowledge gaps and recommended future priority work for consideration by the Department of Environment and Science (DES). |
Project snapshot
| Project name: | Ecologically relevant water quality guidelines for Moreton Bay and Estuaries: Phase 1 |
| Project manager: | Ben Longstaff, Healthy Land & Water |
| Catchment: | South East Queensland |
| Timing: | 2020-2023 |
| Budget: | $25,000 |
| Partnerships: |
This project is supported by Healthy Land & Water, through funding from the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science. |
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What's next
There is huge potential to build on the successful work.
Project collaborators
This project is supported by Healthy Land & Water, through funding from the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science.
