New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE BELLINGER RIVER AREA UNREGULATED AND ALLUVIAL WATER SOURCES 2008 - REG 22

22 Adaptive environmental water

(1) Water may be committed in these water sources for environmental purposes by an adaptive environmental water condition imposed on an access licence, pursuant to sections 8, 8B, 8C, 8D and 8E of the Act.

(2) The holder of an access licence may request that the Minister impose an adaptive environmental water condition in respect of the whole or a part of the share component of the access licence.

(3) The condition imposed under subclause (2) will continue until the holder requests its removal in writing, and the condition is revoked by the Minister, pursuant to section 8B (2) of the Act.

(4) An access licence may be granted in these water sources, pursuant to section 8C of the Act, by the Minister to the Minister, a catchment management authority or other public body, without the need for an application to be made for the licence in accordance with Part 2 of Chapter 3 of the Act, so long as:

(a) works or other actions result in water savings in the system being made in the water source, and

(b) the share component of the access licence is equal to the value of water savings made in the system, and

(c) an adaptive environmental water condition is imposed on the access licence and the condition is not removed,

where "system" means that part of the water source that is not identified by this Plan for commitments to basic landholder rights and for sharing and extraction under any other rights.

(5) The Minister may keep an access licence surrendered by the holder of the licence or transfer it to a catchment management authority or other public body, and may change the licence to a different category or subcategory, if:

(a) the licence has been surrendered as a result of water savings made by any means (for example, works or other improvements or recycling), and

(b) the share component of the licence is equal to the value of the savings made, and

(c) an adaptive environmental water condition is imposed on the access licence and the condition is not removed.

(6) An adaptive environmental water condition is a mandatory condition and the terms of an adaptive environmental water condition specified in subclause (1):

(a) are to be imposed by the Minister or Minister’s delegate, and

(b) are to be specified on the access licence, and

(c) shall further the objectives of this Plan.

(7) The allocation of water for access licences with an adaptive environmental water condition will be in accordance with the available water determination made for the relevant category of access licence under this Plan.

(8) If the adaptive environmental water condition on an access licence requires the water to be left in the water source for environmental purposes, then the water allocation account is to be debited when the water is available in accordance with the adaptive environmental water condition on the access licence.

(9) If the adaptive environmental water condition requires the environmental water to be taken from the water source, then the water allocation account is to be debited when it is taken.

(10) For the purposes of auditing compliance with the long-term average annual extraction limit under this Plan, the delivery of water pursuant to an access licence with an adaptive environmental water condition:

(a) in the case of a licence arising under subclause (4), shall not be accounted for as extraction where it occurs, and

(b) in the case of a licence arising under subclause (2) or subclause (5), shall be accounted for as extraction where it occurs.

(11) To the extent that the water allocation of an access licence which is subject to an adaptive environmental water condition is not required to meet the requirement of the adaptive environmental water condition, it may be the subject of an assignment dealing in accordance with the Dealings Rules in Part 12 of this Plan.

(12) Notwithstanding subclause (11), an access licence with an adaptive environmental water condition may be the subject of any other dealing permitted by the Dealing Rules in this Plan, provided the benefit to the environment provided for in the adaptive environmental water condition is not diminished.

(13) At the commencement of this clause, there were no access licences with an adaptive environmental water condition in these water sources.