New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE NEW SOUTH WALES MURRAY AND LOWER DARLING REGULATED RIVERS WATER SOURCES 2003 - REG 44

44 Volume taken under access licences

(1) The water allocation taken under local water utility access licences, domestic and stock access licences, regulated river (high security) access licences, regulated river (conveyance) access licences and supplementary water access licences shall be assessed as:

(a) the volume of water extracted by the approved water supply works nominated by the access licence, or

(b) the greater of:

(i) the volume of water extracted by the approved water supply works nominated by the access licence, or

(ii) the volume of water ordered for extraction by the approved water supply works nominated by the access licence,

where the Minister has applied such a discretionary condition to the access licence.

(2) The water allocation taken under regulated river (general security) access licences shall be assessed as:

(a) the volume of water extracted by the approved water supply works nominated by the access licence, subject to the provisions of subclause 39 (9) and resulting available water determinations, or

(b) the greater of:

(i) the volume of water extracted by the approved water supply works nominated by the access licence, subject to the provisions of subclause 39 (10) and resulting available water determinations, or

(ii) the volume of water ordered for extraction by the approved water supply works nominated by the access licence,

where the Minister has applied such a discretionary condition to the access licence.

(3) The Minister should only apply a discretionary condition in relation to subclauses (1) (b) or (2) (b) where this has been provided for in a compliance management strategy, approved by the Minister.

Note: It is intended that the discretionary condition referred to above should only be applied where water orders have been exceeding the volume of water being taken under an access licence and this cannot be explained by rainfall or other unavoidable factors.

(4) Water allocation losses attributed to evaporation and dam spills associated with water allocations carried over from the previous water year in the water allocation accounts of each Lower Darling Water Source regulated river (general security) access licences are to be calculated as set out in subclauses (5) and (6) and withdrawn from each access licence water allocation account.

(5) The water allocation loss attributed to evaporation shall be the lesser of:

(a) the volume of water allocation in the access licence account at the commencement of the assessment period in excess of:

(i) the licence share component volume multiplied by the total of the available water determination percentage for that water year,

(ii) plus the water allocations assigned from any other access licence during the current water year,

(iii) minus the water allocations assigned to any other access licence during the current water year, and

(b) the volume calculated under subclause 5 (a), divided by the total of the volumes calculated under subclause 5 (a) for all regulated river (general security) access licences in the water source, multiplied by the depth of evaporation from the Menindee Lakes over the period of assessment multiplied by the additional surface area of water in the Menindee Lakes resulting from total excess volume calculated under subclause 5 (a) for all regulated river (general security) access licences in the water source.

(6) The water allocation loss attributed to dam spills shall be the lesser of:

(a) the volume calculated under subclause 5 (a), and

(b) the volume calculated under subclause 5 (a), divided by the total of the volumes calculated under subclause 5 (a) for all regulated river (general security) access licences in the water source, multiplied by the total volume of water spilled from Menindee Lakes during the assessment period.