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Study focus area (Photo credit: DENR)Where are Adelaide's coastal waters?

The Adelaide coastal waters include the Port waterways and metropolitan beaches, and extend from Sellicks Beach in the south to Port Gawler in the north. They include the waters approximately 20 km offshore. Adelaide’s coastal waters are part of the waters of Gulf St Vincent and include areas of seagrass and reef environments supporting important feeding grounds and nurseries for fish, crustaceans, molluscs and marine mammals. Maintaining good water quality is essential for the maintenance of these marine habitats and important for industry and the recreational uses of Adelaide's coastal waters and metropolitan beaches.

What are the problems facing the Adelaide coastal waters?

Historically the area of the Port River and the broader area of Adelaide’s coastal waters have been impacted by poor water quality from discharges from industry, wastewater and stormwater.  The EPA has previously studied and monitored water quality in this area quite extensively.

The EPA established the Adelaide Coastal Waters Study (ACWS) in 2001 in response to concerns about the decline in coastal water quality and loss of more than 5,000 hectares of seagrass.  The (ACWS) found that discharges into Adelaide’s coastal waters from wastewater treatment plants, industry and stormwater outlets are high in nutrients and suspended solids and are causing loss of seagrass along the Adelaide coastline. Excess nutrients cause algal blooms and epiphyte growth on seagrass leading to loss of seagrass. Discharges of high levels of suspended solids into the Adelaide coastal waters increase turbidity levels contributing to challenges for re-establishing seagrass, poor recreational water quality and may result in beach closures at times after rain events. Loss of seagrass has implications in terms of sediment instability for the management of Adelaide’s beaches and loss of seagrass results in more carbon released into the atmosphere. The carbon storage value of seagrass beds is greater than equivalent sized terrestrial based carbon stored in areas such as rainforest or woodland.

What is being done to improve water quality in the Adelaide coastal waters?

In order to further the recommendations from the ACWS and provide a long-term strategy to achieve and sustain water quality consistent with community expectations for Adelaide’s coastal waters the Adelaide Coastal Water Quality Improvement Plan (ACWQIP) (5.9 MB PDF) has been developed.

The EPA sought comment from Adelaide’s broader community on the vision and environmental values (EVs) contained within the draft ACWQIP in spring 2011. The EPA received 105 comments from individual community members, community groups and government agencies. Many of these comments centred around clarifying information on activities being undertaken by key stakeholders in support of the implementation of the plan. Overall the comments were supportive of the vision, EVs and strategies (94.6 KB PDF) in the ACWQIP. The attached tables (51.6 KB PDF) includes a summary of the range of comments and indicates information on how some of the comments are being addressed in finalising the ACWQIP and in planning for the implementation of the ACWQIP.

This ACWQIP includes a variety of strategies (94.6 KB PDF) and actions aimed at reducing discharges of nutrients and suspended solids to Adelaide’s coastal waters while addressing the 14 recommendations of the ACWS. The ACWQIP brings together the understanding provided by the ACWS with input provided by the Adelaide community to establish EVs – those features of the coast that are of importance to the community; and water quality objectives (WQOs) – measurable targets that protect water quality for Adelaide’s coastal waters.

The ACWQIP has been developed in partnership with relevant government agencies, business and industry. A summary Overview (786.5 KB PDF) of the ACWQIP has been provided for your information.

Now that the period for public comment has concluded, feedback is being responded to and the document will be finalised in 2013. Implementation of some of the ACWQIP strategies has commenced and other strategies will be implemented once the ACWQIP has been finalised.

Water quality monitoring

The EPA's Water Quality Monitoring Program has previously involved monitoring water quality in the Port waterways and along metropolitan beaches, but now is focussed on ecosystem condition monitoring of seagrass and reef habitats in Gulf St Vincent. This condition assessment monitoring can still provide a good indication of what is happening for Adelaide’s coastal waters in terms of water quality and condition of segrass and reef areas along the Adelaide coastline.

Reports

Adelaide coastal waters information sheets

Following the completion of the ACWS, information sheets on Adelaide’s coastal waters and some of the findings of the study are now available.

The first 8 Information Sheets in this series are:

Links

For further information please contact:

Environment Protection Authority, GPO Box 2607, Adelaide SA 5001

Telephone: (08) 8204 2004, Facsimile: (08) 8124 4670, Freecall (country): 1800 623 445, and email.

Last modified: 11/01/2013 02:14 pm

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