The department announced water allocations for the 2020–21 water year on 1 July. While general security water allocations are zero or low across the state, full high security allocations have been announced in some water sources.
Critical water needs, including water for towns and communities, have now been secured for at least 2020–21 in regulated river valleys. This means that future inflows can be assigned to water users’ licences without risk to critical water supply in these valleys, and small increases have already been seen in some valleys.
The February rains helped to restart river flows but had a limited effect on the volumes of water in our storages. While the rain has helped to fill farm dams and restore moisture levels in the soil, most of it did not fall upstream of our larger water storages. The lack of water captured in major irrigation storages has kept general security allocations, typically used for broad-acre irrigation, low.
You can see this year’s water allocations, and resources putting them into context, on our website.
For more information on drought and managing recovery see our Drought update webpage.
Chaffey Dam to Tamworth pipeline now operational
The new Chaffey Dam to Tamworth pipeline became operational in June. Part of the NSW Government’s drought response to secure town water for regional towns, the 18.2-kilometre pipeline will reduce transmission and evaporation losses from delivering water to Tamworth.
Authorised under the Water Supply (Critical Needs) Act 2019, the project was fast-tracked and completed in under a year. This was made possible by the streamlining of approvals, and great work by WaterNSW, MPC Kinetic and the Tamworth Regional Council.
The new pipeline allows town water to be delivered with lower transmission losses, preserving water for the town, and will extend Tamworth’s water supply by twelve months.
The NSW Government has submitted nine draft surface water resource plans to the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) for assessment. This means that NSW has now submitted all 20 of its water resource plans, as required under the Basin Plan 2012.
The plans have been developed through extensive consultation with First Nations groups, water users, environmental representatives and local government. A report on what we heard and how we responded is available on our website.
These draft water resource plans and 23 associated water sharing plans aim to provide a clear framework and set of rules for managing our NSW Murray–Darling Basin water resources. They are for the benefit of regional communities and water-dependent industries, and will ensure we maintain healthy and resilient water ecosystems.
The plans:
set limits on water take
provide water for the environment
set water quality and salinity objectives
provide strategies for managing water during extreme events such as drought.
The draft plans are available to view on the MDBA website.
It’s a WRAP – Closeout of the Water Reform Action Plan
On 30 June, the Water Renewal Taskforce wrapped up after delivering some of NSW’s most significant water reforms in two decades.
Under the Water Reform Action Plan (WRAP):
the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) was established to deliver proactive and reactive enforcement across NSW
new rules commenced to improve the standard and coverage of non-urban water meters across NSW, supported by a telemetry system to transmit water take data to government
new solutions were put in place for the better management of environmental water, including rules to protect held environmental water, manage resumption of flows and limit daily water take.
Thank you to the many stakeholders who provided important feedback during consultations that helped inform and shape new reforms. The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment—Water, NRAR and WaterNSW will continue to engage and work together with stakeholders through the implementation of these reforms.
In June, the state’s independent water regulator visited properties with bores in the Griffith area. The operation follows a desktop audit which found almost 10% of bores in the area may be extracting more water than allowed.
The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) audit – Operation Drawdown – is focusing on water take from bores around the Griffith, Leeton, Coleambally and Darlington Point areas. These bores draw from the Lower Murrumbidgee Groundwater Source.
For the desktop audit, NRAR officers compared the extraction limit on each licence with water take from the bore, as recorded by WaterNSW.
NRAR audited 218 of the 417 water access licences on the Lower Murrumbidgee Groundwater Source, focusing on those with the greatest risk for harm, and found 9% may be over their extraction limit. Those whose bores appeared non-compliant will be visited by NRAR officers for further assessment.
The Minister for Water, Property and Housing, Melinda Pavey, represented NSW at the Murray–Darling Basin Ministerial Council on 19 June 2020. The meeting was held by video conference because of COVID-19-related travel restrictions.
Ministers discussed a range of matters relating to the management of the Murray–Darling Basin. The NSW Government has been focusing on measures to improve the transparency of Murray–Darling Basin management, and making information more accessible. The Ministerial Council agreed to develop a single-source information portal for the Basin.
The NSW Government is also seeking consideration of a new legislative timeframe for full implementation of the Basin Plan 2012. This is based on the findings of a number of independent reviews, including the Productivity Commission’s five-year review of the Basin Plan, published in 2019.
Public submissions invited on draft Northern Basin First Flush report
The independent panel assessing the management of the 2020 Northern Basin First Flush event is now seeking public feedback on their draft report for the assessment.
Submissions on the draft report opened on Monday 13 July2020 and are due by Sunday 9 August 2020. As part of the consultation process, a public webinar was held on 27 July. Thepresentation from the webinar is available online.
The NSW Auditor-General recently audited the performance of the department and of Sydney Water against the water conservation requirements of the Metropolitan Water Plan and Sydney Water’s operating licence.
We agree with the audit’s recommendations and acknowledge that until recently, insufficient focus was placed on water conservation. We also agree there are opportunities to work with Sydney Water to improve water conservation initiatives in Greater Sydney, and will be carrying out the audit’s recommendations.
We are working across the sector to ensure we deliver on the recommendations, including working with Sydney Water and WaterNSW to develop a new Greater Sydney Water Strategy. The new strategy will focus more on water conservation, and contain measures to improve Sydney’s water security.
Since the Metropolitan Water Plan was released in 2017, NSW has experienced one of the worst droughts on record. To manage Sydney’s water during this period, the department:
introduced water restrictions
supported Sydney Water’s water conservation awareness campaigns
enabled the transfer of water from the Shoalhaven Scheme ahead of schedule
switched on the Sydney Desalination Plant.
In addressing the audit’s recommendations, we will use lessons from the drought and new population data to inform how we manage water for a sustainable, productive and liveable city over the next 30 years.
Dams Safety NSW (DSNSW) is the state’s independent regulator, responsible for the safety of declared dams in NSW. Established under the Dams Safety Act 2015, DSNSW makes decisions on how the Dams Safety Regulation 2019 and standards are administered.
DSNSW regulates 410 declared dams across the state. These are dams with the potential to threaten downstream life or cause major property, environmental or public welfare damage should they fail. You can see where these dams are by using the interactive map at www.damsafety.nsw.gov.au.
If you know of a dam that may threaten life or cause major property, environmental or public welfare damage that isn’t listed on our website, please call (02) 9842 8073 or email info@damsafety.nsw.gov.au.
Innovation with Snowy River environmental flows
Returning targeted and varied environmental flows to the Snowy River is essential to the recovery of this high-mountain river system. This year, we’re innovating with a series of high-flow events during winter and spring, aiming to improve the long-term health of the iconic Snowy River, and get the best outcomes from the water available.
For this year’s high-flow events, we’ve planned four smaller releases because of limited water availability from the severity of the drought. This pattern will mimic the natural cycles of the Snowy system, with greater daily and seasonal variation than in previous years. This will help to improve scouring and in-stream habitat.
Water for the environment has been successfully released into the Snowy River in a series of high-flow events over several years. The first of this year’s events took place on 29 June, while the last high-flow release will be on 28 October.
During May and June, the department and WaterNSW held a series of virtual information sessions on the drought outlook and water availability. Four sessions were streamed live, covering the following areas:
Barwon–Darling and Lower Darling
Southern Valleys: Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray
Northern Valleys: Border Rivers, Gwydir, Namoi, Peel and Macquarie
Hunter Valley.
More than 200 people from local councils, associations and organisations, and private landholders, viewed the live webinars. They heard about climatic trends and forecasts, storage levels and systems flows, lessons learnt from the current drought and the effect of drought on groundwater. A water availability update, including prospects for allocations for the new water year, was also shared.
The webinar recordings and presentations can be viewed on the the department's Water website. A summary of what we heard, covering responses to all questions asked and issues raised, is also available.
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