An overview of the public exhibition of the Barwon-Darling - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Public consultation | October 2019

An overview of the public exhibition of the Barwon-Darling Watercourse and Murray – Lower Darling Surface Water Resource Plan

• Introduction to Water Resource Plans
• Barwon-Darling Water Resource Plan
• Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan
• Lower Darling water Sharing Plan
• Public exhibition – have your say
• Drought Update

Agenda

Photo: NSW DPI

Introduction - Water Resource Plans

Legislation Water Act 2007 (Cwlth)

• Principles

Water Management Act 2000 (NSW)

• Principles
• Priorities
• Extreme events

Instruments Agencies and roles Murray Darling Basin Plan 2012 Water Resource Plans (WRPs)

• How NSW water

management meets the Basin Plan Water Sharing Plans (WSPs)

• Rules for managing

environmental and consumptive water

Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA)

• Review state WRPs to show states are managing

water under the Basin Plan requirements Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH)

• Manage held environmental water that has been

recovered from licence buybacks and efficiency projects under the Basin Plan DPIE – Biodiversity Conservation Division (formerly OEH)

• Manages held planned environmental under

WSPs and held environmental water DPIE – Water

• Prepares and administers WRPs and WSPs

WaterNSW

• Delivers environmental and consumptive water
• rders

Natural Resource Access Regulator (NRAR)

• Compliance with WSPs and water restrictions

Departments and roles in water management

Demonstrate how water resources will be shared and managed to be consistent with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Set out the requirements for annual limits on water take, environmental water and managing water during extreme events. Provide strategies to protect water quality and manage risks. Set out the arrangements for measuring ‘take’ and monitoring the resource.

Water resource plan – a Basin Plan requirement

The water sharing plan forms part of the WRP. Relevant parts of a water sharing plan are assessed by the MDBA and accredited by the Commonwealth Minister.

NSW Water Management Act 2000 Water sharing plans Specify the rules for sharing water to maintain the health, sustainability and productivity of surface water and groundwater sources across all of NSW. Commonwealth Water Act 2007 Murray–Darling Basin Plan 2012 Water resource plans Specify the rules for diverting water within specified areas of the Murray–Darling Basin. Elements include:

• Compliance with the sustainable

diversion limits and water trade rules

• Protection of water for the

environment

• Water quality and salinity

management and objectives

• Aboriginal values and uses
• Measuring and monitoring
• Arrangements for managing

extreme events

Water Sharing Plans remain the primary statutory instruments for water sharing in NSW

Water management in NSW - context

WRP

Compliance with the sustainable diversion limit Protection of water for the environment Water quality and salinity objectives Aboriginal values and uses Measuring and monitoring Arrangements for extreme events

NSW statutory ‘ water sharing plans’

Water resource plan and water sharing plan

DEVELOP CONSULT APPROVE & ACCREDIT IMPLEMENT

Status & Issues paper

February 2017

Strategy & rule development Draft WRP Public exhibition WRP

September – October 2019

Ministerial approval Final WRP MDBA assessment & Commonwealth Minister accreditation WRP Commences

2020

Process for developing water resource plans

February 2017: Status and issues papers Internal approvals Other NSW departments approvals for the water sharing plan In progress: Public consultation First Nations consultation

Four Nations

Consultation to date

Stakeholder Advisory Panel 10 meetings

Barwon-Darling Water Sharing Plan

Barwon-Darling water source

Removal of groundwater sources and associated rules Objectives, strategies and performance indicators revised

Establish a second extraction limit (sustainable diversion limit specified in the Basin Plan 2012), and incorporate an assessment and compliance framework for this limit.

Improve consistency and alignment with policy positions

General proposed changes to water sharing plan

Recognition of Native Title Determination for the Barkandji Native Title holders Changes to A Class flow thresholds Removal of access to imminent flows Protection of the resumption of flow after an extended dry period Implementation of Individual Daily Extraction Limits Active management of environmental water

Proposed changes to the water sharing plan

Changes in A class thresholds

• Revision of the A-Class Flow Thresholds, changes recommended by

NRC and Vertessy Report

• Proposed A Class thresholds based on multiple sources of information
• Protect low flows plus 10% of the base flow range
• No change to thresholds at Walgett Weir and Mogil Mogil

Changes to A class flow thresholds

Management zones in the Barwon-Darling

Gauge Proposed (ML/day) Current (ML/day) Gauge Proposed (ML/day) Current (ML/day)

Mungindi 198 230 Brewarrina 550 460 Boomi Confluence 176 220 Culgoa (Beemery gauge) 570 400 Mogil Mogil 220 190 Culgoa (Warraweena gauge) 645 400 Collarenebri 317 165 Bourke Town 605 350 Tara gauge 100 100 Louth 555 260 Walgett Weir Pool 600 to 900 600 to 900 Tilpa 505 215 Boorooma 400 530 Wilcannia 455 123 Boorooma (Geera Gauge) 465 530 U/S Lake Wetherell 850 850

Proposed A class flow thresholds

Removal of imminent flows

• Part of the NSW Government response to NRC review
• Current rules allow A and B class licences to request access to low

flows and cease to flow when flows are imminent

• NRC found current rules unlikely to meet requirement for Ministerial

approval:

• granting access is likely to cause unacceptable downstream or

local impacts on the environment or on other users

Removal of imminent flows

Protection of the resumption of flow

Protecting the resumption of flows

Multi-sectional rule design

• Cultural benefits to Aboriginal communities who have an association with the river. It is

important for regional community well-being.

• Local economies often suffer due to the limited recreational and social opportunities during

dry periods.

• Local communities who rely on this water for human needs and for their stock.
• Environmental benefits include protecting pool refugia, maintaining water quality, and wetting
• f the channel (especially if there is a larger flow following).

Benefits

Individual Daily Extraction Limits

IDELs will limit the volume of water that can be taken from the river every day so that there is the potential for water to flow downstream. This will achieve both local and downstream benefits, including for the environment.

Purpose

The maximum total extraction per day (per licence class) will be the sum volume of all authorised pump capacities or agreed pumping rates in place in October 2012, just prior to the commencement of the 2012 WSP.

Total daily extraction pool

A Class B Class C Class 513 ML/day 10,962ML/day 8,193ML/day

A water access licence will have a share component and an extraction component.

Individual Daily Extraction Limits (IDEL)

Share pool Extraction pool The IDEL has three parts;

• location of management zone,
• the daily flow share,
• and an announcement

Distribution:

• IDELs will be distributed based on the licence holders’ share component and will be in the same

proportion as their share of the total of all shares, within each licence class.

• Expressed as a ‘Daily Flow Share’ where 1 DFS = 1 ML unless a lower amount is announced

Trade:

• Permanent trade within river section will be allowed
• No temporary trade is proposed at this stage

Key dates:

• IDELs will be calculated on the first day of public exhibition of the draft water sharing plan (26 September

2019)

• IDELs are to be effective from the beginning of the next water accounting year (1 July 2020).

IDEL details

Active management of environmental water

What is active management

• Current unregulated water sharing plans do not protect held environmental water used in-stream from

extraction The problem

• Increased level of management in unregulated rivers
• Involves forecasting flows and estimating volumes arising from different sources and announcing

access Active management – the solution

• Protects water used in-stream for environmental purposes
• Reduces the need for temporary water restrictions
• Clearer for licence holders and public to know when water can and cannot be taken

The benefits

• from an upstream water source

already protected by the unregulated water sharing plan

• assessed as additional to the

inflows considered when the Barwon-Darling water sharing plan commenced

Planned Environmental Water

• HEW from northern NSW regulated

water sources and Queensland storages in the Border Rivers

• Unregulated HEW in an active

management area A method for determining the volume of HEW arriving at the NSW-Queensland border must be agreed by NSW before HEW originating in Queensland will be active managed in NSW water.

Held Environmental Water (HEW)

Water to be protected from extraction

Adjusting access – the concept

In-stream use of unregulated HEW

An environmental water holder will be allocated a volume that they can used on a given day in the same manner as other licence holders The environmental water holder will need to advise what volume they want to leave in- stream for environmental purposes. They can leave all or some of the water available to them in-stream. The volume left in-stream will be debited from the HEW allocation account. The volume debited will be protected from extraction through downstream management zones.

The Procedures Manual will outline:

• The type of water to be protected from

extraction

• How losses are estimated and shared

and operational uncertainty is managed

• How access is determined
• The form and content of

announcements

• The process for accounting for in-

stream use of unregulated HEW

• Must be published on Department’s

website

• Feedback is welcome on Active

Management in Unregulated Rivers – Draft policy for public consultation This policy will guide the development of the procedures manual

Procedures Manual

In summary - changes are proposed to:

Define active environmental water Adjust access by the amount necessary to protect the active environmental water from extraction and announce access Allow unregulated HEW to be left in-stream Require publishing of an Active Management Procedures Manual on the Department’s website

Surface Water Resource Plans:

• NSW Murray and Lower Darling

NSW Murray and Lower Darling WRP area

Proposed changes to the water sharing plan

Objectives, strategies and performance indicators revised Establish a second extraction limit, which is the sustainable diversion limit specified in the Basin Plan 2012, and incorporate an assessment and compliance framework for this limit Improve consistency and alignment with policy positions Standardising provisions for EWAGs and compliance assessment advisory committees (CAACs).

NSW Murray and Lower Darling Regulated Rivers Water Sources WSP

Proposed changes to the water sharing plan

Establishment of a Lower Darling restart allowance Development of Inter-valley trade procedures to codify current practice Simplification of the trade clauses to clarify the use of tagged trading between water sources

NSW Murray and Lower Darling Regulated River Water Sources WSP

Implementation of pre-requisite policy measures in the River Murray & Lower Darling River Broaden use of the Lower Darling EWA

Proposed changes to the water sharing plan

NSW Murray and Lower Darling Regulated River Water Sources WSP

Public Exhibition period The Barwon-Darling Watercourse Surface and Murray – Lower Darling Water Resource Plans are on public exhibition from 26 September to 29 October 2019. More information For more information or to make an online submission

• n the draft water resource plan, visit:

www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water-resource-plan-consultation Have Your Say www.nsw.gov.au/improving-nsw/have-your-say

Have your say

Final Questions?

Barwon-Darling and Lower Darling Drought update

18 October 2019 Michael Wrathall Water Drought Coordinator

Rainfall

• Since January 2017,

rainfall has been the lowest on record for NSW

• Total winter 2019

rainfall in NSW was the fourth-lowest on record and the lowest since 1982

Temperature

• The 2017 and 2018

calendar years were the warmest on record in NSW

• Mean temperatures in

the northern basin >1.5

• C above average

Combined metrics

• 99.2% of NSW is in drought (13

October 2019)

• Most of the recent rain has been coastal
• Soil moisture remains very low

Water storages

• Major rural NSW water

storages are 1/3 of capacity on average

• Storages are only 5%
• f average in the north

• Lowest cumulative inflows in recorded

history

• All water storages have missed the

winter inflows

• Major northern storages running a

deficit to sustain critical needs over about 2.5 years

Cumulative inflows: northern basin

Overview: Barwon-Darling river

Drought stage Stage 1: Normal

• perations

Stage 2: Emerging drought Stage 3: Severe drought Stage 4: Critical drought

Extreme Events Policy

Measure Date Result Drought stage May 19 Critical (4) Temporary restriction Apr-Aug 19 Irrigation access suspended Temporary restriction Mar-Jun 18 Irrigation access suspended

• Currently no flows along full river length
• Pumping has been restricted to all

flows since mid 2017

• No flows over Bourke weir since 18 August

2018 - the cease to flow is now a record 425 days long

Overview: Lower Darling river

Drought stage Stage 1: Normal

• perations

Stage 2: Emerging drought Stage 3: Severe drought Stage 4: Critical drought

Extreme Events Policy

Measure Date Result Drought stage

Dec 18

Critical (4) Temporary restriction

Dec 18 Extraction for domestic, stock & permanent plantings

Two temporary

weirs constructed Nov 18 Upstream of Pooncarie Temporary weir in Lake Pamamaroo Sep 18 Pumped transfer to Copi Hollow

Two temporary

weirs constructed

Jun 18

Downstream

• f Pooncarie
• Lake Wetherell ~ 8,000 ML
• Copi Hollow ~ 4,000 ML
• No inflows since August 2018

0.7%

• f

capaci ty

Autumn/Winter 2019

• Flows have now ceased along

the Barwon-Darling

• Flows reached Wilcannia on

15 June, but not Lake Wetherell

• Flows contributed to town water

supply weirs, including Bourke

Northern fish flow event 2019

Collarenebri Weir: before and after flow 21 May 2019 28 May 2019 28 May 2019 Source: CEWO, 11 Sep 2019

Warrego flows 2019

Barring un Fords Bridge Dicks Dam Louth Tilpa Wilcannia Toorale Station

Toorale Water Infrastructure Project

• Removal of Peebles Dam (Phase 1) is scheduled

for October 2019

• Detailed designs for Phase 2 are being finalised

and environmental assessment has commenced

• Pending approvals, the works will commence in

2020 and are due for completion in 2021

• For more info, go to www.environment.nsw.gov.au

How we’re responding

NSW Government drought assistance

$1.8 billion package including:

• Construction of four block banks in the Lower Darling
• 10,000 megalitre transfer from Lake Pamamaroo to Copi Hollow
• Provision of town water supplies

Further support available:

• Interest free or low interest loans
• Funding for shovel ready regional projects
• Transport subsidies
• Assistance for stock disposal
• Mental health and rural financial counselling
• Training to upskill farmers and contractors

Further information: droughthub.nsw.gov.au or call 1800 618 593

How we’re responding

Public meetings

• Three drought roadshows: Feb, May/Jun and

Oct/Nov

• 35 meetings
• 20 different regional locations
• Over 1,000 attendees

Managing in regulated rivers

• Carryover water is restricted or suspended

in 8 out of a total 11 inland river valleys

• High priority allocations are less than the

usual 95-100% in six valleys

• Groundwater allocations are reduced in 8

water sources

• Deliveries have fully ceased in the Lower

Namoi and Lower Darling

• Deliveries have partially ceased in the

Macquarie & NSW Border Rivers

• Deliveries are expected to partially cease

in the Peel

Water quality risks

• Key risks include algal blooms, mobilisation
• f salinity with inflows, blackwater events,

stratification of stagnant waterbodies and decreased oxygen.

• For information on identifying, reporting and

current algal alerts go to Algae page on WaterNSW’s website.

• For information on water quality for stock and

water testing go to the NSW DroughtHub.

Algal alerts in NSW 15 October 2019

Seasonal forecast

Rainfall

Temperature

DPIE Water

• Allocations
• NSW Extreme events policy
• Temporary water restrictions
• Water sharing plan suspensions
• Critical Water Advisory Panels

www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water WaterNSW

• NSW water availability: greater

Sydney & regional

• Valley updates
• Algal alerts
• River Operations Stakeholder

Consultation Committees www.waternsw.com.au DPI Agriculture

• Available drought assistance
• Drought maps
• State seasonal updates
• Managing farm businesses in drought
• Wellbeing – supporting mental health

www.droughthub.nsw.gov.au

More information

More information

Background information

Fish management

• Increasing risk of fish deaths over summer: low flows, poor quality water

and rising temperatures

• $10 million program of fish rescue and relocation, artificial aeration of

refuge pools and environmental water delivery (where possible)

• In the Macquarie over 80 drought refuge pools have been mapped -

similar actions underway in other catchments

• Over 1,100 adult Murray cod and Golden perch have been rescued from

drying pools in the Lower Darling

• Over 100,000 Murray cod fingerlings have been produced at the

Narrandera hatchery from just 20 fish rescued during the 2018/19 fish death events

• Large-scale aeration projects in the Lower Darling, Macquarie and

Namoi to support fish in remnant habitats

• DPI Fisheries has established valley-based committees for expert advice
• To report fish deaths, call the Fishers Watch hotline: 1800 043 536