1.5.2.2 Groundwater

This section presents information about groundwater quality in the Hunter subregion. Salinity is the major water quality issue in the Hunter subregion and more data are available for salinity than for other contaminants, hence the main focus of this section is groundwater salinity. While some information about select trace elements is presented, there is an insufficient number of samples for many of the elements and a lack of supporting information (e.g. aquifer depth, location of sample, purpose of sampling) to permit meaningful interpretation for BA purposes. Salinity and trace elements are not explicitly modelled for the Assessment in the Hunter subregion, but an understanding of the sources of contaminants and the hydrologic connectivity between saline aquifers, water supply aquifers and the river network would help to assess the impacts of mining development on water-dependent assets. Information about the major ion composition of groundwater in seven groundwater provinces in the Hunter subregion is reported in companion product 1.1 for the Hunter subregion (McVicar et al., 2015), together with a description of the hydrogeological units and conceptual understanding of hydrodynamics in the Hunter subregion.