Agrochemcial residues in waterways: assessing & managing ecosystem risk in Victoria's catchments
Project Team | Modules | Project Reports
| Introduction The Victorian Government in its White Paper “Securing our water future together” (external link), identified sustainable water resources as being vital to Victoria’s long-term prosperity, and highlighted the Victorian Government’s commitment to maintaining healthy water resources that support growing communities and a thriving economy. The need to improve our understanding of the health of water bodies identified in the White Paper is reinforced by the Victorian River Health Strategy (external link) in the key area of Management of Water Quality, which addresses a need to improve our understanding of emerging water quality issues. Regional Catchment Management Authority (CMA) Strategies have identified a number of historic and emerging water quality issues to which agricultural systems contribute. For instance, the migration of agrochemicals into creeks and rivers, high concentrations of pesticides causing direct toxicity, and very low concentrations of other highly biologically active compounds resulting in developmental impacts and hence longer term disruption of populations (endocrine disruption). However, compared to other countries and regions there have been few studies of pesticide export from Victorian agricultural systems, nor of the export of other, key emerging contaminants - such as veterinary medicines or endogenous (natural) hormones. DPI’s policy, “Water: Growing Sustainable Primary Industries,” identifies future directions in water, one of which is “encouraging primary industries to maintain and improve water quality.” More specifically, the DPI policy states that pollution of either surface or ground water resources can impact on the quality of the other, and threaten the productivity and sustainability of primary industries, recreational amenity and ecological systems. The policy suggests that it is “critical that the impact of primary industries on water quality is understood, that there is recognition that management of water quality is an integral part of the broader environment, and that some solutions could adversely impact on other parts of the environment.” |  |
A critical part of this project has been the development of strategic research and communication plans that addresses stakeholder concerns and sensitivities in relation to agrochemicals, particularly with respect to human and aquatic ecosystem health. The engine room that drives the plan, and hence research, is the process:
- Stakeholder Management - (identify their concerns / expectations / collaborators)
- Identify the risks - (what, when, how and why)
- Analyse the risks - (identify existing controls, determine likelihood and consequences i.e. risk score)
- Evaluate the risks - (compare against criteria and set priorities)
A wide range of agrochemicals can be found in aquatic ecosystems, from alpine streams to lowland rivers. | |||
 | |||
Under drought and climate change conditions the use of both groundwater and recycled water as replacements for river water for irrigation purposes is likely to become essential for Australian agriculture (and, indeed, the wider Australian community). Use of groundwater and/or recycled water can offer a win-win scenario for the environment and agriculture. However, over-utilization of either water resource can have serious local and regional impacts, e.g. the drying out of creeks and streams, and salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers as a result of over-pumping of groundwater, or contamination of surficial aquifers and nearby creeks through over-irrigation of recycled water.
This project is directed to changing the community’s resistance to the myriad of agricultural uses of surface, ground and recycled water by developing and validating new analytical tools applicable easily (if not cheaply) to determine the impact of agricultural water use on the rural and regional environment. The project involves strategic and applied, scholarship-driven research, in which the current or potential risks of emerging water quality issues are evaluated, the tools required to investigate chemical concentrations in the field in a cost-effective manner developed, and the risks of field measurements determined.
The first stage of the project involved a critical review of existing studies and information related to agrochemical residues in waterways across Victoria. This project also reviewed risk assessment models and monitoring tools/methods (including rapid assessment and biomonitoring techniques) and provide a preliminary assessment of their advantages and limitations.
As of July 2008, the project is comprised of two modules, one investigating the use of stable isotopic tracers to assess ground and surface water interactions, the other investigating new sampling techniques and measurement tools for trace organic contaminants in natural and recycled waters. There is, however, a great deal of connectivity between the three modules beyond the focus on water, particularly in the chemical analytical tools and approaches being used.
|
© The State of Victoria, 1996 - 2009.
This document was last reviewed on 13/01/2009