New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE PHILLIPS CREEK, MOOKI RIVER, QUIRINDI CREEK AND WARRAH CREEK WATER SOURCES 2003 - REG 37

37 Available water determinations

(1) This Division is made in accordance with section 20 (2) (b) of the Act.

(2) In making an available water determination under section 59 of the Act, the Minister should consider the following rules:

(a) water extraction in this Unit will be monitored in each water accounting year to determine if there is any growth in volumes extracted above the extraction limit specified in clause 35, based on comparison of the extraction limit against the average extraction within this Unit over that year and the preceding 2 years,

Note: A water accounting year is defined in clause 42 (3).

(b) if water that, pursuant to an access licence, is committed as adaptive environmental water to be left in a river for environmental purposes, then for the purpose of subclause (a), the extraction will be assumed to be 100% of the available water determination,

(c) if water that, pursuant to an access licence, is committed as adaptive environmental water to be extracted for environmental purposes, then for the purpose of subclause (a), the extraction will be that measured through the approved water supply work,

(d) for all access licences, an initial available water determination, of such volume of water as is equivalent to two times the access licence share component, should be made on 1 July 2003, and such determination should apply for one water accounting year,

(e) from 1 July 2004, available water determinations for local water utility and domestic and stock access licences should be such a volume of water as is equivalent to the access licence share component, with priority given to making this water available above the making of water available to all other categories of access licence, and such determinations should be made annually,

(f) from 1 July 2004, available water determinations for unregulated river access licences, including all subcategories, should be such a volume of water as is equivalent to the access licence share component, except as provided in subclauses (g) and (h), and such determinations should be made annually,

(g) if the 3 year average of extraction in this Unit exceeds the long-term average extraction limit established in clause 35 by 5% or greater, the available water determination for the following water accounting year for unregulated river access licences in these water sources should be reduced by an amount that is assessed necessary by the Minister to return subsequent total water extraction to long-term average extraction limit,

(h) if the 3 year average of extraction in this Unit is less than 95% of the long-term average extraction limit established in clause 35, then the available water determination for unregulated river access licences in these water sources shall be increased to such an extent as to allow extraction to increase to that extraction limit,

(i) notwithstanding subclause (h), and excepting the initial available water determination made in accordance with subclause (d), the available water determination should not exceed 100% of the total access licence share components,

(j) a new available water determinations for unregulated river access licences determined under subclause (g) or (h) should be repeated for each of the subsequent two water accounting years unchanged in quantity, and

(k) available water determinations for runoff harvesting access licences should be made annually and should be either the access licence share component or the water that can be extracted from time to time from the approved works, depending on the manner in which the share component is expressed on the licence.