water resource plans - an overview · vanessa o’keefe | director planning water resource plans...
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Vanessa O’Keefe | Director Planning
Water Resource Plans – An Overview
ALL SAP MEETING | 5 & 6 JUNE 2018
Water Resource Plans (WRPs)
• Water resource plans (WRPs) are a key requirement of the Commonwealth Basin Plan 2012.
• For a specified Water resource Plan Area, they:
• must be developed in consultation with stakeholders
• recognise the economic, social, cultural and environmental objectives established in the Basin Plan
• specify how water will be shared and managed to sustainable diversion limits
• recognise the long term (environmental) watering plan for the area, and provide for its implementation
• deal with water quality protection objectives and measures
• adopt a monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework
• Chapter 10 of the Basin Plan establishes the requirements for WRPs
• In order to streamline their structure and ensure consistency across all plans WRP templates been developed (one for surface water and one for groundwater).
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Water Resource Plans
Development Process
Page 3
Water Resource Plans Document relationships
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• WRPs adopt key elements of statutory water sharing plans (WSPs) which will remain the primary instruments for water sharing in NSW
• These elements will be ‘accredited’ under the Basin Plan
• WSPs will be amended to reflect Basin Plan requirements
Basin Plan: NSW Context
Water Resource Plan
Water Quality Management Plan
(includes Salinity) (Dept of Industry –
Water)
Water Sharing Plan
(Dept of Industry –
Water)
Water Act 2007 (Cth)
AccreditationWater
Management Act 2000 (NSW)
Gazettal
Intergovernmental
Agreement 2008 –
Implementing Water
Reform in the Murray
Darling Basin
Act
Agreement/Agreed Plan
Key
Deliverable
MDBA Basin Plan
Long-term Watering Plan
(OEH)
Other supporting NSW legislation including:
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979
Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997
Local Land Services Act 2013
NSW Supporting Documents and Policies
Dotted line – indirect link
Solid line – direct link
Risk Assessment(Dept of Industry –
Water)
Gwydir Water Resource Plan
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Water Resource Plans
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Reading the document
Water Resource Plan: Content
A WRP contains 8 sections – a logical planning approach:
• Introduction
• Identification of WRP Area, SDL resource units and other matters
• Risks to water sources
• Environmental water, cultural flows and sustainable management
• Take for consumptive use
• Water quality management
• Measuring and monitoring
• Information used to prepare the WRP
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Water Resource Plans
• Describes the purpose and scope of the WRP
• Puts the plan in context with the legislative requirements
• Recognises the objectives of the Basin Plan, and specifies Indigenous values, uses and objectives for the protection of cultural flows
• Explains the form of the WRP – how to read and interpret it
• Discusses enforcement provisions of the WMA and C’th Water Act that apply to the WRP
• Outlines consultation that was undertaken and introduces the consultation report for accreditation
• The consultation report will be attached in Schedule C
1. Introduction
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Water Resource Plans
• Identifies the WRP Area, SDL resource units and water resources
• Regard to other water sources is described
2. Identification of WRPA and other matters
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Water Resource Plans
• Specific risks to the availability of Basin water resources evaluated include: • (a) insufficient water available for the environment;
• (b) water being of a quality unsuitable for use; and
• (c) poor health of water-dependent ecosystems.
• Specifies the individual table in the Risk Assessment for accreditation, including those relating to: • data, methods used to identify and assess the risks, and the uncertainties
associated with the methods
• the outcomes of the assessment and
• strategies to manage risks
• The risk assessment will be attached in Schedule D
• Section 3 satisfies the Chapter 10 requirements of the Basin Plan “Approaches to addressing risks to water resources” – 10.41 – 10.43
3. Risks to water sources
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Water Resource Plans
• Defines environmental water from a legislative perspective – WMA 2000
• Highlights the requirements of the WSP in relation to planned environmental water
• Identifies Planned Environmental Water by reference to the WSPs (regulated and unregulated)
• Describes the Register of Held Environmental Water and the holders of that water
• Discusses priority environmental assets and ecosystem functions by reference to the Long Term Watering Plan (Appendix C)
• Discusses environmental watering within the WRP Area and between WRP Areas
• Highlights WRP area specific rules relating to no net reduction of PEW
• Discusses cultural flows
• Acknowledgement surface water and groundwater connectivity
4. Environmental water, cultural flows & sustainable management
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Water Resource Plans
Definitive links between WRP and WSP:
• Identifies water access rights and other forms of take, describes how these rights are enabled under the WMA and their priority order
• Introduces Schedule F for accreditation (Tables describing access/take types and BDL components)
• References conditions applied to access licence under the WMA (NSW) to ensure operation of take provisions and compliance
• SW/GW trade
• The SDL is defined and a framework for adjusting the SDL is described
• Determining available water for the different licence categories
• Overview of available water determinations in the regulated and unregulated water sources
• Determination of actual take (via measuring or estimation)
5. Take for consumptive use
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Water Resource Plans
• Annual permitted take (APT)
• Methods of assessing compliance with the SDL and APT discussed as well as corrective actions for SDL compliance
• Interception activities and floodplain harvesting. Variation between Basin Plan and NSW explained and other interception activities listed
• Response to extreme events outlined and the Incident Response Guide (IRG) is introduced for accreditation and attached in Schedule G
• Section 5 satisfies the Chapter 10 requirements of the Basin Plan – 10.08, 10.10 – 10.13, 10.15, 10.23 – 10.25, 10.39 and 10.51
5. Take for consumptive use
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Water Resource Plans
• Introduces the WQMP attached in Schedule H
• Specifies the WQMP Tables for accreditation:
• key causes of water quality degradation
• water quality target values in the WRP Area to meet BP objectives
• measures to address medium and high risks relating to water quality
• Section 6 satisfies the Chapter 10 requirements of the Basin Plan “Water quality objectives” – 10.29 – 10.35
6. Water quality management
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Water Resource Plans
• Specifies how NSW will monitor river flows and various types of water ‘take’ in the WRPA, and links back to Section 5.2.1 and 5.4
• References Schedule I: State-wide principles for measuring water take
• References Schedule K: Monitoring, reporting & evaluation plan for the WRP area
• Monitoring water resources is accredited by referring to Table 7.1 of the WRP – monitoring of water resources
• Section 7 satisfies the Chapter 10 requirements of the Basin Plan – 10.44 – 10.46
7. Measuring and monitoring
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Water Resource Plans
• Introduces Schedule J for accreditation
• Schedule J describes the information, tools, methods and models used in the development of the Gwydir WRP
• Section 8.1 provides a summary of this
8. Information used to prepare the WRP
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Water Resource Plans
• Schedule A: WSP information
• Schedule B: WRP Index
• Schedule C: Consultation report
• Schedule D: Risk assessment information
• Schedule E: Planning for environmental water
• Schedule F: Water for consumptive use information
• Schedule G: Extreme Events Information
• Schedule H: Water quality management information
• Schedule I: State-wide principles for measuring water take
• Schedule J: Information & tools used in preparing WRP
• Schedule K: WRPA monitoring, reporting & evaluation plan
Schedules
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Water Resource Plans
• Appendix A: Summary of Indigenous Values & Uses
• Appendix B: Water Resource Plan Area Description
• Appendix C: Long Term Watering Plan
• Appendix D: NSW Water Take Measurement Policy
• Appendix E: No net reduction in the protection of PEW report
• Appendix F: Incident Response Guide
Appendices
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