The EPA and the Australian Government have prepared a Water Quality Improvement Plan that takes the findings of seven supporting projects and recommends a combination of management measures to reduce phosphorus loss from land uses within the coastal sections of the three catchments - the Serpentine, Murray and Harvey - draining to the Peel-Harvey Estuary.
In 2003 the Peel-Harvey Coastal Catchment was identified as a priority hotspot under the Australian Government's Coastal Catchments Initiative (CCI) and the subsequent component projects were developed in partnership with the Government of Western Australia.
The CCI programme consisted of eight coordinated projects including the development of the Water Quality Improvement Plan for the Rivers and Estuary of the Peel-Harvey System – Phosphorus Management (WQIP) by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) with assistance and coordination provided by the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council. The outputs of the seven remaining projects contributed to and assisted in the preparation of the WQIP. These CCI projects were as follows and their reports are included as appendices in the WQIP:
- Decision Support System for Water Quality Protection
- Support System for the Phosphorus Reduction Decisions
- Water Quality Monitoring Program
- Water Sensitive Urban Design
- Regulation/ Licensing Review
- Targeted Assistance to Intensive Agricultural Industries, and
- Stock Exclusion from Catchment Waterways.
The EPA and the Australian Government has now prepared the final WQIP that takes the findings of the seven supporting projects and recommends a combination of management measures to reduce phosphorus loss from land uses within the coastal sections of the three catchments - the Serpentine, Murray and Harvey - draining to the estuary.
The EPA released the final WQIP on 15 December 2008.
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