Shallow groundwater bores in the lower Torbay catchment (near Albany, Western Australia) were sampled for a suite of chemical parameters at two sampling times, approximately six months apart.
Depletion in alkalinity was observed from September 2007 to April 2008, and this was coupled with an increase in metal concentrations. Total metals increased more substantially than soluble metals, although measures of particulate metals may not be representative of the water that could be moving through the shallow aquifers to surface ecosystems. While total acidity did increase in the April sampling compared with the earlier sampling, the variation was high between sites, so the difference in this variable among years was not statistically significant.
