WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE GREATER METROPOLITAN REGION UNREGULATED RIVER WATER SOURCES 2011 - REG 38 Banked environmental flow rules for these water sources

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE GREATER METROPOLITAN REGION UNREGULATED RIVER WATER SOURCES 2011 - REG 38

38 Banked environmental flow rules for these water sources

(1) A banked environmental flow (hereafter
"BEF" ) account is to be kept for each of the following water supply works:

(a) Tallowa Dam and Fitzroy Falls Reservoir in the Shoalhaven River Water Source,

(b) Warragamba Dam, Lilyvale Dam, Wingecarribee Reservoir, Avon Dam, Cataract Dam, Nepean Dam and Cordeaux Dam in the Upper Nepean and Upstream Warragamba Water Source, and

(c) Woronora Dam in the Southern Sydney Rivers Water Source.

(2) Subject to subclause (3), where releases were altered or were not required because:

(a) the release requirements could not be met due to an emergency situation and the holder of the water supply work approval notified the Minister in writing within 7 days of becoming aware of the emergency, or

(b) the Minister was satisfied that the release requirements could not be met due to water supply work capacity constraints or necessary maintenance, refurbishment or modification work that had the potential to temporarily affect the flow rate or behaviour of water for a period of more than 24 hours and granted permission in writing, or

(c) the Minister required an alternate release to be made due to an emergency situation or a maintenance activity and notified this in writing,

the difference between the recorded release and the required release shall be set aside in the water storage of the respective water supply work and credited to the respective BEF account established for the water supply work from which the release could not be made or was altered in accordance with the requirements of the Minister.

(3) Water required to be credited to a BEF account under subclause (2) for a water supply work in the Upper Nepean and Upstream Warragamba Water Source may be credited to any BEF account in the Upper Nepean and Upstream Warragamba Water Source in accordance with the written approval of the Minister. In deciding whether to provide approval, the Minister may take into account system and infrastructure connectivity and operational constraints.

(4) Water credited to a BEF account must be released from the water supply work in accordance with the written direction of the Minister.

(5) Subject to subclause (6), the volume of water credited to the BEF account must be:

(a) debited by the amount of a release made in accordance with subclause (4), and

(b) reset to zero if any water is spilling from the water supply work, and

(c) reduced at a rate of 1% of the volume of water remaining in the BEF account per day.

Note : The 1% reduction rate accounts for evaporation and other losses and mitigates potential risks to the reliability of the potable water supply as a result of the long-term storage of banked environmental water.

(6) Any reductions under subclauses (5) (a)-(c) must be limited so that the BEF account cannot have a negative balance.