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The Eprapah estuary continued to receive a “C”
grading in the 2009 Report Card. The estuary is small relative to other
estuaries that receive flows from WWTPs and has poor flushing in the
upper reaches where it receives discharges from the Victoria Point WWTP.
It is therefore less able to process the nutrient loads compared with
larger estuaries.
A large decrease in compliance with QWQ
guidelines for TN (0% in 2008/2009 compared with 42% in 2007/2008) was
somewhat offset by a corresponding improvement in Chl-a
(86% compliance in 2008/2009 compared with 57% in 2007/2008). Eprapah
estuary continued to be poorly compliant with water quality objectives
for TP (0%) and turbidity (6%) in 2008/2009 (compared with 0% and 2% for
2007/2008, respectively).
Despite generally poor water quality, the
Eprapah estuary contains a high proportion of unmodified riparian
habitat. At this time, nearly 85% of riparian habitat remaining in the
estuary is natural as much of it flows through conservation land which
contains healthy stands of mangroves and saltmarsh. The large component
of natural riparian habitat remaining in Eprapah helps enhance the BHR
for the system and supports its Report Card grade.
Abbreviations glossary |
Indicators and methods
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