- Introduction
- Minimising the Off-Site Impacts of Pesticides in the ORIA
- Miriwoong Translation Project
- Waste Water Re-use Study
- Communication in the Ord Catchment
- Weed Control on Lake Kununurra
- On Farm Water Use Efficiency
- Artificial Wetlands Assessment
- Implementation of the 'Land' component of the Plan
Since the release of the Ord Land and Water Plan in October of 2000 Ord Land and Water has been active in implementing the strategies and actions of the Plan by building projects in partnership with other organisations or on its own.
The projects are managed by a full time coordinator and have been funded by Federal Government initiatives such as the Natural Heritage Trust, the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and Caring for Our Country, Funding from the Western Australian State Government and Lottery West.
Minimising the Off-Site Impacts of Pesticides in the ORIA
Project Objectives
To support the long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Ord through the development of guidelines with the agricultural industry for Minimising the off-site impacts of pesticides in the Ord River Irrigation Area.
The major aims of the project were to:
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Carry out a risk assessment and identify pesticides of most concern in terms of threat to the riverine ecosystem health in the Ord River.
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Conduct monitoring of pesticide residues in tail waters.
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Enhance the natural attenuation of pesticides prior to the release of drainage water.
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Develop with industry guidelines for better on-farm management of pesticides to minimise off-site impact on surface and groundwater.
Funding and support for the project has come from the following organisations -
ORIA Farmers
Department of Transport and Regional Services
Horticulture Australia Limited
Risk assessment and monitoring
Risk Assessment 
[download]
The risk assessment for surface water and ground water of the ORIA involved gathering of pesticide use data for selected farm production systems including information on soil and climatic conditions, hydrological conditions and an integration of pesticide loading, toxicity and transport parameters.
Key factors included agronomic practices and how they related to pesticide migration, with particular reference to water management practices. The Risk Assessment provides a list of compounds that represent the greatest risk to the environment and therefore were the targets of focused monitoring and management.
The risk assessment was followed by limited targeted monitoring for the ‘high-risk’ pesticides that have been identified. The timing of this monitoring coincided with pesticide application. This helped to validate the assessment by confirming which pesticides and in what quantities were likely to leave the farms and their pathways of migration.
Stage 2Monitoring and experimentation
The initial phase of this stage of the project was aimed at developing a better understanding of pesticide migration from farms. To achieve this, samples of tail-water were obtained during the first irrigation after pesticide application to understand when and in what quantities pesticides were leaving the paddock.
This was followed by experiments to test several on-farm management options that would become the basis form further work.
A three-pronged approach was developed and implemented in consultation with the growers. The experiments for developing on-farm management options were selected on their practicality and as likely to be adopted by the irrigation community.
The approach and experiments planned included:
(i) Minimise residue moving off farm: Options selected included using polyacrylamide (PAM) as a flocculant, incorporating pesticides mechanically into the soil and targeting pesticide contact away from water furrows.
(ii) Enhanced natural degradation: This entailed enhancing natural degradation of the pesticide through grassed tail water ditches, however it was realised that water flows off farm were substantial and backing up water would cause problems with crop waterlogging. Therefore this line of investigation was halted after grower consultation.
(iii) Removal of residues from drainage water: Novel cost-effective sorbents for removal of pesticides from water are being developed by CSIRO and other agencies. Laboratory tests appeared promising. Some preliminary trials were done using these materials, however they were found to be impractical under the conditions.
In addition, experiments were carried out to test the commercially available rapid screening kits for pesticide residues under ORIA conditions, for selected pesticides such as atrazine.
Stage 3Data analysis and development of Guidelines for on-farm management
In this stage of the project results from the first two stages were analysed in order to develop guidelines to minimise off-site migration of pesticides in ORIA.
Additionally training in the use of kits tested in Stage 2 was provided to stakeholders providing them with simple techniques to detect residues moving off-farm providing early warning and facilitating better management.
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A better understanding and awareness of the impact of pesticide residues on ecosystem health in the ORIA and associated riverine ecosystems.
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A list of pesticides considered ‘high risk’ using present management practices.
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Identification of on-farm management approaches for minimising the off-site migration of pesticides and enhancing their natural breakdown on farm and in drainage water.
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Practical guidelines for better management of pesticides in the ORIA.
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Validation of simple residue analysis kits and training of industry users.
This is a cooperative project with a number of partners working locally to meet the needs of the present irrigated agricultural industry in the ORIA.
ORIA Farmers
CSIRO
Department of Transport and Regional Services
Horticulture Australia Ltd
National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality
National Heritage Trust
Department of Environment
Department of Agriculture Western Australia
Ord Bonaparte Program
To select and translate into the languages Miriwoong and Kriol parts the Ord Land and Water Management Plan for broadcast over local radio. From this we hope to create a greater understanding of the Plan by the community and in particular the Traditional Owners and create the opportunity for their equitable participation in the future management of the region's natural resources.
MethodsTraditional Owners worked with staff from OLW and the Mirima Language centre to identify goals, associated strategies and actions from the Plan that were considered important to local Indigenous people. These were summarised as messages, written into plain English then translated into Miriwoong and Kriol.
The messages were broadcast over Waringarri Radio in five minute information packages that delivered the selected message firstly in English, followed by Miriwoong and then Kriol.
Outputs-
To encourage participation of Indigenous people in future local natural resource management planning.
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To expose the community to the language of a significant portion of the community.
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To development an education tool for Traditional Owners to learn their own language.
Funding and Project Partners
Lotterywest.
Mirima Dawang Woorlab-Gerring Dawang Language Centre
Waringarri Radio 6WR
This work was undertaken jointly by ORIA farmers, the Department of Agriculture and Ord Land and Water in 2004 in an attempt to develop water efficiency guidelines. This work was continued and expanded into the projct 'Demonstrating Sustainable Farming Systems' by the Depatment of Agriculture in 2005.
Artificial Wetlands Assessment
This project builds on earlier work that has identified suitable existing artificial wetlands for assessment of their capacity to act as a ‘filtering system’ to remove contaminants in irrigation drainage water, and preliminary monitoring for chemical and nutrient attenuation within the system. This project will monitor a production season and the following wet season for movement of contaminants into and out of the artificial wetland system. Information from this project will be used to develop recommendations of the feasibility of using artificial wetlands as a management tool to reduce the impact of contaminants in irrigation drainage water on the Lower Ord River.] Artificial Wetlands Report [2.9mb pdf] [download]