ACTEW Water introduced a water security program which involved
building additional infrastructure to improve the future water
supply of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Several
components of this initiative involve water transfer via river
abstraction, which requires a robust monitoring program that would
detect any potential impacts that may eventuate from changes in
The monitoring program design incorporated the conditions of
approval from the EPA. The Murrumbidgee Ecological Monitoring
Program (MEMP) adopts an adaptive management approach as well as a
comprehensive field program which includes monitoring water
quality, riparian vegetation, macroinvertebrate communities, fish
and geomorphology surveys.
The Murrumbidgee River originates in the Snowy Mountains, NSW,
and has an upstream catchment area of approximately 5,100
km2 to the ACT border, where the water abstractions are
to occur. The monitoring program is in the Upper Murrumbidgee
Catchment and all monitoring sites are located between two major
reservoirs - Tantangara to the south and Burrinjuck to the
Murrumbidgee River water is to be drawn from Angle Crossing and
pumped into Burra Creek, some 12 km to the east which flows into
the Googong Reservoir. Burra Creek is naturally an intermittent
Creek, which usually has very low base flows.
Twenty three monitoring sites are visited biannually in the
Murrumbidgee River and an additional six sites are visited in the
Burra Creek Catchment to the east. The impact of the Inter Basin
Transfer on the water quality, flora and fauna and natural erosion
rates to the receiving waters are currently being monitored by GHD,
while at the same time the impacts of water abstractions at Angle
Crossing (on the Murrumbidgee River) are being investigated.
This project has provided a comprehensive understanding of the
state of river health in the Upper Murrumbidgee River, which has
important social, economic and ecological value to the region.
GHD’s approach used the AUSRIVAS protocols, which has been modified
to return finer detail in the resolution of macroinvertebrate
species. This method provides a detailed species inventory of the
Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment; and a comprehensive understanding of
the existing ecological condition of the river under various
hydrological environments. The MEMP has also provided key
stakeholders and community groups with confidence in their local
utilities that monitoring for environmental change has been
pro-active in light of the significant changes to local
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