SSB undertakes in-situ toxicity monitoring using freshwater snail reproduction

Chemical and physical monitoring

The water chemistry monitoring program (including the radionuclide radium-226) is conducted in Magela Creek and Gulungul Creek in the period of stream flow in order to:

enhance the baseline/background dataset for water chemistry upstream of Ranger, and detect potential mine-related changes in water quality.

The Supervising Scientist’s water chemistry monitoring program has been developed using continuous monitoring of physico-chemical parameters coupled with automatic event-based collection of water samples. Water chemistry samples are collected monthly during routine quality assurance sampling; if an electrical conductivity (EC) trigger is reached, it indicates potential mine-related change in water quality.

Details regarding the development and operation of the monitoring program can be found in the Surface water chemistry monitoring protocol to assess impacts from Ranger Mine and the Revised Ranger Mine Water Quality Objectives for Magela Creek and Gulungul Creek.

Biological monitoring

Biological monitoring techniques have been developed to assess the environmental impact of uranium mining on aquatic ecosystems downstream of ranger mine. Two early detection methods are used:

In-situ toxicity monitoring using freshwater snail reproduction

Bioaccumulation monitoring in freshwater mussels

Details regarding the development of the in-situ snail toxicity monitoring can be found in the Environmental monitoring protocols to assess potential impacts from Ranger minesite on aquatic ecosystems: In-situ toxicity monitoring – freshwater snail, Amerianna cumingi, reproduction test.

Monitoring data 2017-20

These documents provides an update to the Supervising Scientist Branch’s routine surface water quality monitoring for Magela Creek and Gulungul Creek:

Magela Creek

Gulungul Creek

Monitoring data - previous years

Magela Creek

Gulungul Creek

Further information