New South Wales Consolidated Acts

SNOWY HYDRO CORPORATISATION ACT 1997 - SECT 23

23 Rights and obligations under licence

(1) The rights that are to be conferred on the Snowy Hydro Company by the Snowy water licence include the following:

(a) the right to collect all water from the rivers, streams and lakes within the Snowy water catchment,

(b) the right to divert that water,

(c) the right to store that water,

(d) the right to use that water to generate electricity, and for purposes that are incidental or related to the generation of electricity or to the management of that water in the Company’s works,

(e) the right to release water from storage in accordance with the arrangements made by the licence for the release of that water.

(2) The obligations that are to be imposed on the Snowy Hydro Company by the Snowy water licence include the following:

(a) the obligation to release to rivers and streams flowing from the Snowy water catchment all water collected and stored by it, except for normal operating losses, consumption within its works and emergency supplies as authorised by the licence,

(b) the obligation to release water to rivers or streams flowing from the Snowy water catchment (and to rivers, streams and lakes within that catchment) in accordance with the arrangements made by the licence, including arrangements made for drought and other emergencies and for environmental reasons.

The arrangements made by the licence for the release of water are to include an obligation to give notice of the timing and volume of water releases in the manner required by the licence.

(3) The Snowy water licence is to give effect to any agreement between the States of New South Wales and Victoria following the report of the water inquiry under Part 4 and, in particular, the licence is to give effect to the provisions of the agreement relating to the initial release of water to the Snowy River for environmental reasons on the issue of the licence.

(4) The rights of the Snowy Hydro Company to collect, divert, store, use and release water as referred to in this section are subject to section 32 of this Act (Local water extraction) and to Part 1 of Chapter 3 of the Water Management Act 2000 (Basic landholder rights).

(5) The rights of the Snowy Hydro Company to collect, divert, store and use water as referred to in this section do not extend to subsurface water.

(6) The rights or obligations of the Snowy Hydro Company to collect, divert, store, use and release water are subject to the conditions and other provisions of the licence.

(7) The rights or obligations of the Snowy Hydro Company to release water from its storages as referred to in this section do not authorise the Company to act as a supplier of that water to others or to give rights to others to use that water (except as authorised by the Water Administration Ministerial Corporation).