Executive summary

To effectively manage water quality, the regional rivers monitoring programme addresses the following questions:

What is the quality of the water now?
Why is the water of the observed level of quality?
Is water quality getting better or worse? If so - what makes it change?
How can we improve the quality, ecological health and integrity of the region’s rivers and streams?

The monitoring information allows Environment Waikato to:

determine compliance with classification standards
assess the suitability of the resource for various beneficial uses and values of the water
monitor the impact of major discrete point source discharges on water quality
monitor the impacts of diffuse discharges on water quality
provide a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of resource management measures.

This dataset is invaluable for the evaluation of the region’s rivers: their state, the pressures on them and our response to these pressures. We need to continue to gather comprehensive, reliable and good quality data on the region’s rivers to protect and enhance their values into the future.

Regional Rivers Water Quality Monitoring Programme Data Report 2009 [PDF, 1.4 MB]