After waiting patiently for the recent flood waters to recede at a safe distance and mindful of residual hazards lurking underwater, the water monitoring team led by Bruce McConkey managed a series of spot tests recently to examine the preliminary impact of the flooding on Noosa’s key water quality indicators.
Conducted downstream around Noosa Waters canal and upstream around Boreen Point, the preliminary data indicates elevated levels of turbidity, unsurprising due to the transfer and suspension of fine sediments, with a considerable decline in salinity levels versus normal and seasonal parameters. Surprisingly, levels of dissolved oxygen in the water were observed to be less affected and within normal ranges, possibly due to the effects of prevailing winds during testing.
The team looks forward to getting out on the water shortly to conduct more comprehensive instream tests across the 30 odd sites and unravel some of the longer term impacts of the floods on our water quality.