National Outfall Database

The National Outfall Database (NOD) project addresses the need of government and community to understand the impacts on health and the ocean environment that occur from sewerage outfalls around Australia. This dataset is part of the assessment and mapping of the marine impacts of wastewater disposal to ocean and estuarine waters in Australia. The data collected in this study is intended to be used to assist decision makers to understand risk and prioritise investment, to help the public understand water and wastewater management and make decisions when choosing recreation locations, and private operators seeking to re-use wastewater or products found within wastewater. Each outfall is divided into three levels of data; one (1) being basic information such as location, treatment, governance and size; two (2) being more detailed information taken from publicly available annual environmental monitoring reports, licence and other information; and three (3) containing highly detailed information such as daily performance data and receiving waters ecosystem assessments and studies to enable researchers and others to undertake comparative studies. The data custodian will make a data report and methodology available to provide a full explanation of this database.

The National Outfall Database is an online resource available here: https://www.outfalls.info/ The database currently tracks 48 indicators across 192 monitoring sites. The data is also available for download in CSV format in the "online resources" section of this record, and will continue to be updated as new data becomes available (data currently available to 30/06/2022 - last checked 19/01/2024.

Identification info

Date (Creation): 2016-03-30

Date (Revision): 2022-06-30T00:00:00

Principal investigator

Clean Ocean Foundation - Perraton, Simon

ORCID >

Principal investigator

Clean Ocean Foundation - Gemmill, John

Collaborator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies - Qurratu, A'yunin Rohmana

ROR ID >

Collaborator

Infotech Research - Cumming, John

Collaborator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies - Fischer, Andrew

ROR ID >

ORCID ID >

Credit: National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub

Status: On going

Point of contact

Clean Ocean Foundation - Gemmill, John

Victoria

Australia

Temporal resolution: P0Y0M1DT0H0M0S

Topic category

Oceans

Extent

Temporal extent

Time period: 2016-01-01

Maintenance and update frequency: Irregular

Date: 2019-01-01T00:00:00

Date type: update

Resource scope: Dataset

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords Version 8.0

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research

Keywords (Discipline)

Temperate Reef

AODN Platform Vocabulary

land/onshore structure

Keywords (Theme)

Concentration of faecal coliform bacteria
Concentration of ammonia {NH3} per unit volume of the water body
Concentration of total nitrogen {TN} per unit volume of the water body
Concentration of total phosphorus {TP} per unit volume of the water body
Concentration of Ammonia Nitrogen per unit volume of the water body
Concentration of Nitrate Nitrogen per unit volume of the water body
Biological oxygen demand 5 days (BOD5)
Total Dissolved Solids
Concentration of Oil and Grease
Concentration of Calcium per unit volume of the water body
BOD Filtered
Concentration of Sodium per unit volume of the water body
Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN)
Concentration of Magnesium per unit volume of the water body
Chemical Oxygen Demand
Surfactants (MBAS)
Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR)
Total Algae Count
Total Blue-Green Algae Count
Blue-Green Algal Bloom
Flow Volume
Enterococci
E-coli
Faecal Coliforms
Total Coliforms
Colour

AODN Discovery Parameter Vocabulary

Resource constraints

Classification: Unclassified

Resource constraints

Use limitation: This record is hosted by the Institute of Marine Science (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) on behalf of the Clean Ocean Foundation Inc.

Resource constraints

Linkage: http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png
License Graphic

Title: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License Text

Other constraints: The data described in this record are the intellectual property of the Clean Ocean Foundation Inc and the University of Tasmania through the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

Other constraints: Data was sourced from the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub - The Marine Biodiversity Hub is supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program (NESP), administered by the Department of the Environment (DOE).

Language: English

Character encoding: UTF8

Content Information

Content type: Physical measurement

Name: Concentration of faecal coliform bacteria

Name: CFU/100ml

Name: Concentration of ammonia {NH3} per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Identifier

Code: pH (total scale) of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UUPH

Name: pH units

Name: Concentration of total nitrogen {TN} per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of total phosphorus {TP} per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of Ammonia Nitrogen per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of Nitrate Nitrogen per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Biological oxygen demand 5 days (BOD5)

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Identifier

Code: Concentration of suspended particulate material per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Total Dissolved Solids

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of Oil and Grease

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of Calcium per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: BOD Filtered

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of Sodium per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN)

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Concentration of Magnesium per unit volume of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Chemical Oxygen Demand

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Name: Surfactants (MBAS)

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UMGL

Name: Milligrams per litre

Identifier

Code: Turbidity of the water body

Identifier: http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/USTU

Name: Nephelometric Turbidity Units

Name: Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR)

Name: ratio (no units)

Identifier

Code: Electrical conductivity of the water body

Name: microSiemens per centimetre (µS/cm)

Name: Total Algae Count

Name: Cells/mL

Name: Total Blue-Green Algae Count

Name: Cells/mL

Name: Blue-Green Algal Bloom

Name: Frequency

Name: Flow Volume

Name: Megalitres (ML)

Name: Enterococci

Name: organisms/100mL

Name: E-coli

Name: organisms/100mL

Name: Faecal Coliforms

Name: organisms/100mL

Name: Total Coliforms

Name: organisms/100mL

Name: Colour

Name: Pt.Co. Units

Distribution Information

Distribution format

OnLine resource: DATA ACCESS V1.1 - SAMPLES - most current version available from NOD website [CSV direct download]

OnLine resource: DATA ACCESS V1.2 - INDICATORS - most current version available from NOD website [CSV direct download]

OnLine resource: DATA ACCESS V1.3 - LOCATIONS - most current version available from NOD website [CSV direct download]

OnLine resource: DATA ACCESS V2 [ALL DATA] - most recent backup of data available from IMAS database [use this if V1 data access links not working]

OnLine resource: NESP:NESP_NationalOutfallDatabase_MAP
MAP - National Outfall Database sampling sites

OnLine resource: NESP_NationalOutfallDatabase
This OCG WFS service returns the outfall data for download in multiple formats, including CSV.

OnLine resource: National Outfall Database website

OnLine resource: NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Project C4 website

OnLine resource: NESP Project C4 [ANDS RDA record]

Resource lineage

Statement: The wastewater effluent quality data were collected from local government area websites and through information request form water authority key personnel. The water quality data samples were analysed using the approved methods for the sampling and analysis of water pollutants in New South Wales (Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) 2015). The range of monitoring data collected from each wastewater treatment plant was between April 2012 and March 2016 for New South Wales and January 2015 and December 2015 for Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmania. The database provides wastewater quality parameters that water authorities were required to collect under EPA licence requirements. Parameters include but are not limited to pH, ammonia (NH3) mg/L, total nitrogen (TN) mg/L, total phosphorus (TP) mg/L, biochemical oxygen demand 5 days (BOD5) mg/L, faecal coliform bacteria cfu/100ml, total suspended solids mg/L, and oil and grease mg/L.

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Platform

Identifier

Code: land/onshore structure

Metadata

Metadata identifier: urn:uuid/21448123-0170-4aff-9b56-2b6aa21c73ed

Language: English

Character encoding: UTF8

Point of contact

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Emma Flukes (NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Data Manager)

Private Bag 129

Hobart

Tasmania

7001

Australia

Parent metadata

NESP MB Project C4 - The National Outfall Database project (Clean Ocean Foundation)

Type of resource

Resource scope: Dataset

Metadata linkage: https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/21448123-0170-4aff-9b56-2b6aa21c73ed
Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Date info (Creation): 2020-09-10T08:53:36

Date info (Revision): 2025-02-01T11:17:26

Metadata standard

Title: ISO 19115-3:2018

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