New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE COOPERS CREEK WATER SOURCE 2003 - REG 32

32 Rules for granting access licences

(1) This clause is made in accordance with sections 20 (2) (b) having regard to the limits to water availability in this water source and the need to protect dependent ecosystems.

(2) In addition to those applications for specific purpose access licences permitted under clause 19 of the Water Management (General) Regulation 2004 (hereafter "the Regulation") applications may also be made in this water source for:

(a) an access licence that may be granted in accordance with a dealing,

(b) a domestic and stock access licence,

(c) an unregulated river [Aboriginal community development] access licence where the share component does not exceed 10 ML/year per applications,

Note: An unregulated river [Aboriginal community development] access licence will not be fully tradeable. Allocations under these licences will be able to be traded to non-Aboriginal people, however the licence itself can only be traded amongst Aboriginal people, and as such, will remain in the Aboriginal community for the life of the licence. These licences will not be able to be converted to any other category of licence. Aboriginal communities, enterprises and individuals are encouraged to seek financial assistance from funding bodies to purchase fully commercial licences.

(d) an unregulated river access licence share component for existing access licence holders, provided that individual daily extraction limits (hereafter "IDEL") are surrendered as follows:

(i) the access licence share component may increase by 100% if all A Class IDELs are surrendered,

(ii) the access licence share component may increase by 200% if all A and B Class IDELs are surrendered,

(iii) IDEL in C Class will not change,

(iv) to be eligible for additional share component under subclause (2) (d), the IDEL surrendered must be the full IDEL initially assigned to the access licence, as amended by clause 51,

(v) the share component that is increased in accordance with subclauses (2) (d) (i) or (ii) cannot exceed the initial share component of the access licence to which the IDEL was originally assigned,

(vi) the total daily extraction limit in clauses 46 and 47 will be reduced by the amount of IDEL surrendered in A and B Class, and

(vii) the granting of these additional share components may continue as long as the additional share components for this water source resulting from subclause (2) (d) do not exceed 3,000 unit shares,

(e) an unregulated river (research) access licence where the share component does not exceed 10 ML/year per application.

At 1 July 2008, clause 19 of the Regulation provides that applications may be made for the following specific purpose access licences:

(i) a local water utility access licence (subcategory “domestic and commercial”), for the purpose of domestic consumption and commercial activities,

(ii) a domestic and stock access licence (subcategory “domestic”), for the purpose of domestic consumption,

(iii) an unregulated river access licence (subcategory “town water supply”), for the purpose of supply to communities for domestic consumption and commercial activities,

(iv) an aquifer access licence (subcategory “town water supply”), for the purpose of supply to communities for domestic consumption and commercial activities, and

(v) any category of specific purpose access licence (subcategory “Aboriginal cultural”), for Aboriginal cultural purposes.

Section 61 (b) of the Act allows for a person to apply for an access licence with a zero share component.
Section 61 (c) of the Act allows for a person to apply for an access licence where the right to apply for that access licence has been acquired under section 65 of the Act.
Sections 66 (3) of the Act allows the Minister to vary a local water utility’s share component at 5 year intervals, to reflect any variation in population, together with any variation in associated commercial activities that has occurred during the period.
Section 66 (4) of Act allows the Minister to vary a local water utility's share component, on application of the local water utility to reflect any rapid growth of population within the utility's area requiring an immediate increase in the availability of water for supply by that utility.

(3) An access licence of the subcategory (Aboriginal cultural) can only be granted if the application does not exceed 10 ML/yr.

(4) An application for a specific purpose access licence will only be granted if the share or extraction component of the access licence is the minimum required to meet the circumstances in which the access licence is proposed to be used.

(5) Any IDELs for licences granted in accordance with this clause will not exceed the IDEL initially assigned to an equivalent share component for that category of access licence, as varied by clause 51.

(6) Any new access licence granted in this water source in accordance with this clause, must have a share component within the respective total daily extraction limit initially assigned.