Guidelines for groundwater quality monitoring of regulated activities

Groundwater is a valuable natural resource throughout South Australia. It represents the largest source of freshwater in the state and is critical to the health of ecological communities and the viability of the agricultural, pastoral, mining and tourism industries. Groundwater is also used for domestic water supply, irrigated horticulture and a variety of industrial applications, as well as sustaining important Cultural Flows of First Nations.

Like all water resources, groundwater is susceptible to pollution. Certain industries and land uses, as well as poor waste management practices, can result in pollutants seeping into the underlying groundwater and adversely impacting its quality. Groundwater pollution can also have a significant effect on human health, ecosystems and socio-economic development.

Activities that have the potential to pollute groundwater quality are regulated by the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) through an environmental authorisation (licence).

Licences include a range of conditions that are designed to control risks and reduce the environmental impacts of an activity through the implementation of pollution prevention measures. Regular groundwater quality monitoring is an important tool to validate the effectiveness of those measures and is often included as a condition of licence where there is a risk of impacts to groundwater quality.

It is important to note that the primary objective for groundwater quality monitoring of regulated activities is not the same as monitoring undertaken for the assessment of site contamination. Site contamination assessments typically focus on an assessment of risk associated with exceedances of default guideline values. In contrast, the key objective for groundwater quality monitoring of regulated activities is simply to determine whether or not the activity is impacting the existing groundwater quality, resulting in new groundwater pollution, or adding to existing groundwater pollution.

In order to clarify regulatory groundwater quality monitoring expectations, the EPA is developing a new series of Guidelines for groundwater quality monitoring of regulated activities in South Australia, which will comprise the following publications:

1. Groundwater monitoring bore network design
2. Groundwater sampling
3. Establishing baseline groundwater quality
4. Establishing groundwater quality assessment criteria
5. Developing a groundwater monitoring and management plan
6. Groundwater quality assessment reporting.

The guidelines will be progressively drafted and released for stakeholder consultation over the next few years. It is anticipated that all guidelines will be published by the end of 2026.