New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE PATERSON REGULATED RIVER WATER SOURCE 2007 - REG 15

15 Adaptive environmental water

(1) Water may be committed in these water sources for environmental purposes by an adaptive environmental water condition 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.

(4) An access licence may be granted in these water sources under section 8C of the Act, to the Minister, a catchment management authority or other public body if works or other actions result in water system savings being made in these water source, where system means that part of the water source that is not by this Plan identified for extraction, subject to:

(a) the share component of the access licence granted being equal to the value of system water savings made,

(b) the category of access licence granted reflecting the water system savings made, and

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

(5) An access licence may be held by the Minister, a catchment management authority or other public body to the extent that the whole or part of that access licence has been surrendered as a result of water use savings made by works or other improvements, subject to:

(a) the share component of the access licence held being equal to the value of the water use savings made,

(b) the category of access licence held being the same as the surrendered access licence, and

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

(6) The conditions of the adaptive environmental water condition specified in subclause (1):

(a) are to be established by the Minister,

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

(c) shall be such as to ensure that there will be a contribution to 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 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 with the amount of water delivered to a point on the river, 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 that has been committed as adaptive environmental water shall not be accounted for as extraction where it occurs pursuant to a licence under subclause (4) but shall be accounted for as extraction where it occurs pursuant to a licence under subclause (2) or subclause (5).

(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 condition it may be the subject of an assignment dealing in accordance with the Dealings Rules in Part 10 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 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.