Dry Creek

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Introduction

Dry Creek is a fresh to brackish stream that flows through the northern suburbs of Adelaide before discharging to the Port waterways. The site on Conway Crescent is on the middle reach of the catchment and is surrounded by residential land use. Elevated turbidity, heavy metal, and nutrient levels are the most likely water quality problems. The banks are lined with mainly exotic grasses a few gum trees. >> Map (2MB PDF)

Water quality assessment

Water quality is assessed as being in good, moderate or poor condition by interpreting ecological health and water chemistry data in the context of protecting environmental values. >> More

Ecological health is assessed in spring and autumn using the AUSRIVAS model. We use macroinvertebrates for this purpose because they provide a relatively simple way to assess the health of an aquatic ecosystem. >> More

Water chemistry is measured each month. We measure chemical indicators because when they reach a certain level they can cause stress or toxicity to animals and plants in an ecosystem. Some indicators can also indicate if the water is suitable for drinking water or for activities such as swimming. >> More

Ecological health

We collect two samples of macroinvertebrates, one from riffle (or flowing water) habitat and one from edge (still water) habitat. The diversity of the macroinvertebrate community is used to describe ecological health as being in good, moderate or poor condition.

Go here to find out how we classify ecological health in streams.

Ecological health assessment for May 2006

Habitat	Ecological health
Edge	Good
Riffle	Moderate

These ratings are consistent with previous results for the Dry Creek site, with edge habitats rating as being in good ecological condition and the riffles as being in a slightly impaired condition.

The edge habitat included 34 different types of macroinvertebrates. The most common species were baetid mayflies (Cloeon species), oligochaete worms and hygogastrurid springtails. The riffle habitats had only 21 different macroinvertebrates. Worms, midge larvae (Cricotopus species), hypogastrurids and blackfly larvae (Simulium ornatipes) were the most common species.

The site included temnocephalids (flatworms with five anterior tentacles), freshwater shrimp, and two introduced snails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum and Physa acuta among a range of native molluscs occupying pools in the creek. Interestingly, the site lacked any beetles and the riffle was rated as impacted because of the absence of odonates, mayflies and leptocerid caddisflies. The riffle habitats in this urban stream may be impacted by the effect of high stormwater flows following local rainfall, making conditions unfavourable for the full range of animals that normally inhabit flowing water habitats in the Mt Lofty Ranges.

Download ecological health data

• All the macroinvertebrate data for Dry Creek (9KB CSV)

Water chemistry

The indicators that are measured in Dry Creek are nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), turbidity, salinity and heavy metals. The concentrations of these indicators are used to classify the water chemistry as being in good, moderate or poor condition, according to the needs of aquatic ecosystem protection.

Go here to find out how we organise and classify the chemistry data.

Water chemistry classification for April to September 2006

Indicator	Classification
Oxidised Nitrogen	Poor
Total Nitrogen	Poor
Soluble Phosphorus	Good
Total Phosphorus	Good
Turbidity	Good
Heavy Metals	Good

Nitrogen is often measured at high concentrations in Dry Creek. The nitrogen is probably derived from fertilisers, animal wastes or leaf litter being washed into urban stormwater drains. These sources are consistent with the observation that total nitrogen in Dry Creek is about 40% soluble oxidised nitrogen and about 60% organic particulate nitrogen.

The Greater Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges NRM Board have an active program of educating industry and the community about reducing stormwater pollution, which is the most significant influence on the Dry Creek water quality.

>> Archived results

Download water chemistry graphs

• Oxidised nitrogen in Dry Creek
  
• Total nitrogen in Dry Creek
  
• Total phosphorus in Dry Creek
  
• Soluble phosphorus in Dry Creek
  
• Turbidity in Dry Creek
  
• Salinity in Dry Creek
• Copper in Dry Creek
• Lead in Dry Creek
• Zinc in Dry Creek
• Cadmium in Dry Creek

Download raw chemistry data

• All chemistry data for Dry Creek

What is being done to improve the condition of South Australian rivers and streams

Efforts to improve the condition of South Australia's rivers and streams are being driven by various government agencies, primarily

The Environment Protection Authority
The Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation
Natural Resource Management Boards
Department for Environment and Heritage (SA)

Collaborative projects and programs being run by these agencies are based on the protection of environmental values, as explained in the National Water Quality Management Strategy. >> More

This page was last modified 25-09-2007