The Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate has joined with the Commonwealth Government to fund two new water-quality research projects aimed at improving water quality in Lake Tuggeranong and the Territory’s urban ponds and wetlands.
Minister for the Environment, Mick Gentleman and Senator for the ACT, Zed Seselja announced the research as part of the ACT Healthy Waterways Project, saying it would be carried out by the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra.
“The research of water from Lake Tuggeranong will help us understand where the nutrients that cause poor water quality, including blue-green algae outbreaks, come from and how they behave once they are in the Lake,” Senator Seselja said.
“Not only does poor water quality prevent people from enjoying the Lake, it also adversely affects the Lake’s ecosystem and the downstream rivers that provide important inflows to the Murray–Darling system.”
He said the research would complement the funds spent on water-quality infrastructure, including new wetlands and raingardens across Canberra.
“While the infrastructure aims to switch off the flow of pollutants from the catchments, the research focuses on how pollutants are behaving in our lakes and ponds,” Senator Seselja said.
Mr Gentleman said urban ponds were designed to slow the flow of stormwater and allow sediment and nutrients to settle out before the water entered lakes and rivers.
“The ponds project is investigating how exposing sediment to the air through natural seasonal fluctuations in the water level affects water quality,” Mr Gentleman said.
“The findings will help us better manage urban wetlands and ponds.”
