Staff from the Department for Environment and Water’s (DEW) Water Resource Monitoring Unit (WRMU) have celebrated 25 years of surveying the River Murray by reflecting on their achievements and the challenges they have overcome.
Manager of Monitoring Operations at DEW, Tim Branford said managing salinity was one of the biggest challenges in the Murray-Darling Basin and the WRMU team celebrated a significant milestone this year with its 25th Run of River (RoR) salinity survey.
Mr Branford said that as river management and monitoring continued to evolve and get more sophisticated each year, the team had noticed conditions slowly improving in certain areas of the river.
“The RoR survey work estimates the amount of salt being added to the Murray per river kilometre so we’re able to see any salinity increases in the water,” he said.
Mr Branford said the program’s longevity was testament to the efforts of past and present staff in providing essential salinity data to inform river management.
He said that over 25 years, the WRMU had developed the knowledge, techniques and equipment to allow annual assessment of the salt accession to the River Murray, particularly in those areas operating Salt Interception Schemes.
Mr Branford said technology had changed considerably over 25 RoR surveys, beginning with manual recordings in old tinnies to now using modern computer software to capture salinity levels.
“Previously it’d take weeks to do 600 kilometres of the river whereas now it takes three weeks to do up to 2,500 kilometres,” he said.
“We’re the only State to be running salinity surveys over such a long period of time and that’s allowed us to report on the success of the scheme over many years,” Mr Branford said.
