The State of the Lakes report found more frequent monitoring was required during periods of high pollutant loads and that "the ACT government should be responsible for water quality in Lake Burley Griffin, instead of the National Capital Authority".

Sally Barnes, chief executive at the National Capital Authority, said until now water monitoring had primarily been for recreational purposes.

"Outside those regular monitoring periods, if we've got big inflows and big rain events and lots of stuff coming off the catchment, no one has been very good at capturing what that water quality looks like," she said.

"We follow the health guidelines for how you monitor for recreation, but it is time to take that monitoring further and do more ecological monitoring and more understandings of the load of pathogens or the load of nitrogen that's coming down the system."

Ms Barnes said she had since been in discussion with the Commissioner and agreed they could step up data collection.

Lake manager David Wright said the importance of this type of monitoring had only recently begun being highlighted as climate change became more of a focus point for governments.

"It's not done by any other jurisdiction - including the ACT government - and this is a knowledge gap across the industry that we need to improve to understand how our lake systems work," he said.

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The National Capital Authority own the lake, managing water quality, keeping it clear and maintaining infrastructure like its walls. Along the lake edge, it's a mixture of National Capital Authority and ACT government, with land around the Parliamentary Triangle belonging to the Authority.

Ms Barnes said the National Capital Authority is supportive of the ACT's new Office of Water, established by the government to get departments working together more effectively on water management.

It was created following a recommendation of the Commissioner for Sustainability that the ACT government merge existing policies, plans and strategies to ensure they're working towards the same goal.

Ms Barnes said that the National Capital Authority would still exist outside that office would not create a problem the integration of departments was trying to solve.

"I imagine we'll work hand-in-glove with them, because our interest is in making the lake as fabulous as possible," she said.

Canberra MP Alicia Payne was this week announced as head of the parliamentary committee due to scrutinise power of the National Capital Authority.

Geoffrey Rutledge, Deputy Director-General for the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, said whether its current control of the lake was fit for purpose would more likely be addressed in that review.

He said responsibility for water quality management was not something ACT government had been pushing for.

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