Water Quality Monitoring in the Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains City Council conducts an annual audit of the health of our creeks using a range of physical, chemical and biological indicators.

Macroinvertebrates are animals without a backbone that can be seen with the naked eye.  They are widely recognised as a key indicator because they increase the temporal scale of the audit, that is, their presence or absence represents the water quality over their lifespan.  Marcoinvertebrates are also ubiquitous - they are found in almost all water bodies.  However, it is the families present and the diversity of families (richness) present that can tell us how healthy a waterbody is.

Macroinvertebrates are designated a grade indicating their sensitivity to pollutants.  The grades range from one to ten with one being the most tolerant and ten being the most highly sensitive to pollutants.

This item was posted in October 2006.