New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE TOMAGO TOMAREE STOCKTON GROUNDWATER SOURCES 2003 - REG 28

28 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 each groundwater source will be monitored in each water accounting year to determine if any growth in volumes extracted is occurring above the extraction limit established in clause 26, based on a comparison of the extraction limit against the average extraction within each groundwater source over that year and the preceding 2 years,

Note: A water accounting year is defined in clause 33 (3).

(b) if water that, pursuant to an access licence, is committed as adaptive environmental water to be left in the aquifer for environmental purposes, then for the purpose of subclause (a), the extraction should 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 an environmental purpose, then for the purpose of subclause (a), the extraction should be that measured through the approved water supply work (bore),

(d) for the major utility access licences, an initial available water determination of 76,000 ML in Tomago, and 11,000 ML in Tomaree, should be made on 1 July 2003, and such determination should apply for a period of 3 water accounting years, and thereafter,

(e) available water determinations for the major utility access licences should be no more than 25,300 ML/yr in Tomago, and 3,700ML/yr in Tomaree, 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) on 1 July 2003, an available water determination should be made for all aquifer access licences of 100% of the aquifer access licence share component, and such a determination should remain in place for 1 water accounting year,

(g) in years 2 to 10 of this Plan, if the 3 year average of extraction in a groundwater source exceeds the long-term average extraction limit established in clause 26 by 5% or greater, the available water determination for the following water accounting year for aquifer access licences in that groundwater source should be reduced by an amount that is assessed necessary by the Minister to return subsequent total water extraction to the long-term average extraction limit,

(h) if the 3 year average of extraction in a groundwater source is less than 95% of the long-term average extraction limit established in clause 26, then the available water determination for aquifer access licences in that groundwater source shall be increased to such an extent as to allow extraction to increase to that extraction limit,

(i) notwithstanding subclause (h), the available water determination shall not exceed 100% of total access licence share components, and

(j) the available water determination calculated in accordance with subclauses (g) and (h) will apply to all aquifer access licences in a groundwater source, and shall be the same percentage for all access licences to which it applies.