Macroinvertebrate and Sediment Baseline Surveys of the Murray River at Albury for Norske Skog

"January 2009".

Project Number: Assessment of River Health and River Environment Monitoring: Baseline surveys 2008 of the Murray River at Albury - M/BUS/277.

MDFRC item.

For listing of associated publications see Biomonitoring of Newsprint Mill Wastewater for Norske Skog Part 1 (annual reports) and Part 2 (presentations and scientific publications).

A long term river environment monitoring program was conducted by the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre (MDFRC) for Norske Skog (formerly, Australian Newsprint Mills) from 1992 to 1998 (King and Baldwin 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 & 1997). Norske Skog’s effluent outfall diffuser is located in the Murray River at Albury, approximately 300m upstream of the Spirit of Progress Bridge (construction of the latter completed in 2007). In preparation for a proposed discharge of effluent via the diffuser, baseline surveys were conducted in 2008 to characterise benthic macroinvertebrate community structure and deposition zone sediments using the same methods and a subset of the sites that were employed during the surveys conducted previously by the MDFRC.