Several water quality surveys were undertaken in the coastal waters of the Kimberley region from September 2007 to August 2008 to measure typical TSS concentrations and determine background total and dissolved concentrations of aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver and zinc. This work was undertaken to establish a baseline for the Kimberley from which to assess local and regional changes in water quality in years to come and to ascertain whether the guideline trigger values from ANZECC & ARMCANZ (2000) are relevant to the region.
The results of this study indicate that the coastal waters of the Kimberley region are generally of very high quality. The concentrations of metals across the region were relatively low and met the guideline trigger values from ANZECC and ARMCANZ (2000) for a very high level of ecological protection (99% species protection) at the time of sampling.
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