Water Engagement Roundup
Collateral from the webinar on Wednesday, 22 June 2022.
Watch the webinar
22 June 2022 – A webinar was held and the topics covered included groundwater, infrastructure, harvestable rights and more.
Questions and answers
The following are questions by topic asked from the registration and during the Water Engagement Roundup webinar.
Groundwater
How will customers learn what flow class is in effect each day for Greater Metropolitan Region Unregulated and Groundwater water sharing plans?
A. If the gauge has telemetry, the flow rate can be found at https://realtimedata.waternsw.com.au/ by entering the gauge reference number for the zone or water source.
If the requirement is that you must not pump water when there is no visible flow in the river, this is determined by your own observation.
For more complex rules where environmental or town water supplies are being protected as they travel downstream, we plan to implement a system that will notify licence holders whether they can pump or not.
Current and future availability of ground water licenses in the Greater Metropolitan Region?
A. New licence shares may be made available through controlled allocations. These occur most years if sufficient unassigned water is available within the extraction limit. They are open for limited periods. You can register your interest for the next available process, visit Controlled allocations.
For most of the Metro groundwater sources the extraction limit exceeds current entitlements and controlled allocations have been offered in recent years. The strategy for controlled allocation of groundwater explains factors that inform whether water is made available.
In addition, you can obtain a 0ML volume water access licence and temporarily or permanent trade water into this account from existing licence holders. These zero share water access licences (WAL) are available through WaterNSW (for application forms and information).
You can purchase an existing water access licence (or part of). If you don’t know of any sellers, you may consider contacting a water broker for your area. You could search for water brokers on the internet or ask local stock and station agents if they sell water.
Infrastructure
Is the Prospect to Macarthur pipeline plan happening? Is it funded?
A. Yes, the Prospect to Macarthur pipeline is funded, being built and is about 50% complete. This project, colloquially known as “ProMac”, is led by Sydney Water.
Is there a new rule for operation of Warragamba that now allows for it to be used for the purpose of flood mitigation? If so, how much? What volumes?
A. WaterNSW is the operator of Warragamba Dam and has stated the dam is used solely for the purposes of water supply and there has been no change to the way the dam operates.
Harvestable rights
Coastal Harvestable rights recently changed from 10% to 30%. Does this change also apply to the Greater Metro area?
A. Harvestable rights are available to all landholders – there is no distinction between metro and rural areas. See link in question below for more details.
Harvestable rights for Inland are still limited to 10%. Is this right?
A. That's correct, in an inland-draining catchment. The increase only applies to coastal-draining catchments. For maps and more info, see Harvestable rights.
Metering
If I am not irrigating now, do I still need a meter on my pump for groundwater?
The NSW Metering Guidance Tool can help with determining metering thresholds and how they relate to individual circumstances.
There are two factors to consider when answering the question: do you meet the threshold to require a meter? There are size and risk related thresholds.
If you do require a meter but you're not irrigating and you don't plan on irrigating anytime in the near future, then there is the opportunity to mark your work as inactive and avoid the measuring requirements. This can be done through WaterNSW.
If you decide to irrigate in the future, then you would mark your work as active again and then you would fall back under the metering requirements.