Engagement – April 2024

A. The proposals relate to the owners and occupiers of land being able to access water from adjacent rivers and underlying aquifers without needing a water access licence. As an owner or occupier, those organisations would be able to make the same use of the exemption as anyone else, but we're not proposing to open up access to water stored in public dams, town water supply dams or private dams on someone else's landholding for these purposes.

Note that the NSW Rural Fire Services (NSW RFS) does have powers under its legislation to access water from any source in emergency situations.

A. The proposal is to exempt landholders from needing a licence for bushfire preparedness and firefighting. Water used for firefighter training hasn't been raised as a specific issue to date, but is something we can discuss with the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) to see if that is a need.

In relation to the water supply work approval part of the question, if the work is only used for these purposes then a streamlined assessment and low application fee would apply. If it was also being used for this purpose AND some other purpose, then the standard application process relating to that other purpose would apply. An example would be if a new bore is also going to be used for irrigation purposes, a standard water supply work approval application would be needed to construct the bore.

A. Under the current laws, water taken by landholders for these purposes would be accounted for through their licensed entitlements and annual allocations. Water taken by the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) during an emergency is not accounted for as far as we are aware. Likewise, water taken under an exemption would not be accounted for at a water source scale, but we expect the overall volumes to be very small compared with all other consumptive and non-consumptive uses.

A. That is a worthwhile suggestion that could be included in our communications at the time of rolling out any changes. Throughout the project, we have come across examples of firefighting tanks and roof sprinkler systems where water used to wet down roofs can be recaptured for reuse.

A. The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) is the independent regulator in NSW responsible for monitoring compliance with water laws. NRAR has teams of compliance officers across NSW who respond to and investigate reports of alleged breaches and it also uses technology to monitor and audit the use of surface water and groundwater. In the event of a new type of licence or exemption, NRAR also has education and engagement teams who meet regularly with stakeholders and individuals across the state.

A. It can be hard to work out how much water has been taken under an exemption once it is in place. This is noted as a disadvantage of the exemption option (see Option 1 in the Background Paper (PDF, 280.56 KB)). There are ways that water use could be monitored under an exemption, such as it being conditional on water users recording and reporting take. For bushfire preparedness and firefighting however, we expect that only small volumes would be taken and infrequently, thus the risks to water sources, dependent ecosystems and other water users are thought to be very low. For this reason, and the difficulties involved in mandating reporting of this form of take (as presented in the Roundup session and documented in the Background Paper), periodic targeted landholder surveys are proposed as the best means of obtaining information on the scale and volume of water use.

A. A limit on the volume of water that can be taken from a water source to be stored in a dams or tanks for later use is proposed – at 100,000 litres per landholder per year – to ensure dams or tanks cannot simply be refilled with river water or groundwater to replace water that is used for other purposes. If water availability is limited during a dry spell, the ability to draw on small volumes for these critical purposes is thought to be an important benefit to landholders, communities and significant areas (e.g. culturally significant sites) that might otherwise be severely damaged by fire. The taking of water for critical needs is prioritised over other uses of water in extreme events like droughts. For more information on how water access is managed during extreme events, see the Extreme Events Policy.

A. NRAR has a suite of state-of-the-art technology that allows their officers to be anywhere in the state, at any time, with the click of a button. This includes sophisticated satellite imagery that can detect and be used to investigate and act on alleged water theft.

A. Apart from the 0.1 ML volume limit proposed for water being extracted and placed in a dam or other storage for later use, no volume limit or guidelines are proposed for times when an active or imminent fire is threatening a landholding.

The Department has been consulting on a separate policy matter relating to the use of domestic and stock rights which sought views on whether further regulation of water taken under that form of right is needed. That policy project is still in progress and further information will be provided once the initial, comprehensive public feedback has been fully considered.

A. That is correct in terms of what is proposed. Water taken under the proposed exemption could only be used to prepare for an imminent bushfire threat or for firefighting. In this context, imminent means that a fire is impending or likely to occur at any moment.

Landholders wanting to maintain green lawns may be able to access water under basic landholder rights. Harvestable rights allow landholders to catch rainfall runoff in a dam which could be used for this purpose. Similarly, domestic and stock rights allow landholders to take and use water for domestic consumption which includes garden purposes.