Canberra’s citizen scientists have been praised for their contribution to WaterWatch’s latest health indicator report on the ACT water catchment areas.
Minister for Water, Shane Rattenbury said WaterWatch’s 2020 Catchment Health Indicator Program (CHIP) Report revealed the health of the Territory’s waterways and was made possible by the help of more than 200 volunteers.
“Volunteer citizen-scientists play a major role in maintaining the health of our environment,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“The 2020 Report, which is the sixth annual report of its kind, is based on 1,872 water quality surveys, 184 waterbug surveys and 219 riparian condition surveys conducted by over 200 volunteers,” he said.
“I want to thank these dedicated volunteers for the thousands of hours of work that went into this important Report despite bushfires, severe rain events and the COVID-19 public health emergency.”
Mr Rattenbury said the CHIP Report provided the Government and community with a better understanding of the health of ACT water, waterbugs and vegetation.
“Across the 229 surveyed sites in Cooma, Yass and across Canberra, 40 report cards received an excellent or a good mark, 55 were marked as fair, while three received a poor result,” he said.
“None were rated as degraded.”
He said the Report found the upper Murrumbidgee catchment was impacted by bushfires in the 2019/2020 summer, as the rain which followed the fires had a devastating impact on waterways with sand, soil and ash from the fresh fire grounds washed into the system.
Mr Rattenbury said that while the range of scores didn’t change markedly from 2019, conditions influencing the scores did.
“Extended dry conditions could be attributed to many of the results in 2019, but in 2020, either a lack of rain, too much rain or, of course, bushfires, played a role,” he said.
WaterWatch’s 144-page CHIP Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
