ANZECC water quality guidelines - FAQs
7. The size and technical nature of the documents make them difficult for most people to follow; there still needs to be provision for an alternative approach which provides for an initial assessment which does not require a high level of scientific expertise?
In fact Volume 1 and Overview are the key documents, and it is not necessary to use the decision frameworks unless it is important to derive a site-specific value. The move towards a site-specific approach to water quality management - if necessary - has, as a consequence, lead to a more complex document than the original 1992 Guidelines. As a result there will be some time and effort needed in the initial reading of the document to understand the approach being taken. However, in the medium term there will be considerable benefit gained in the increased cooperative approach engendered by the new Guidelines. The level of scientific expertise required for an initial assessment is no greater than that required now for the application of the present guideline values in the 1992 document. Once the level of a particular toxicant or stressor is determined for the water body of concern, it is simply compared to the present trigger values provided in the Guidelines, i.e. the trigger values serve as first-pass values for initial assessment.
