ON-FARM AND COMMUNITY-SCALE SALT DISPOSAL BASINS ON THE RIVERINE PLAIN A RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY OF ELEMENT COMPOSITION AND PESTICIDE LEVELS IN SALINE DISPOSAL BASINS IN THE RIVERINE PLAIN

There are pressures to minimise salt leaving irrigated catchments of the Murray-Darling Basin to limit salinity increases in the River Murray. Part of this strategy is to manage drainage disposal water in the irrigation areas using disposal basins. Unfortunately, there are no existing guidelines for siting, design and management of such disposal basins. The CRC for Catchment Hydrology and CSIRO Land and Water, with support from the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, have embarked on a project with the overall objective of producing such guidelines for the Riverine Plain of the Murray Basin. This report is one of several being produced in this project to support the guidelines. It deals with water quality in the basin water and sediments. Basin water quality is important in terms of decommissioning, permissible leakage, limits to exposure to the environment and the setting of monitoring guidelines and auditing requirements. The results suggest that while there is nothing of immediate concern, some caution should be exercised with regard to aquaculture, contact with aquatic ecosystems and decommissioning. There is also a need for increasing current monitoring