2019-2020 Water sharing plan reviews




Status:

Advice provided

Plans reviewed:

5

Summary

We completed our review of the following water sharing plans:

  • Water Sharing Plan for the Hunter Unregulated and Alluvial Water Sources 2009
  • Water Sharing Plan for the Peel Valley Regulated, Unregulated, Alluvium and Fractured Rock Water Sources 2010
  • Water Sharing Plan for the Central Coast Unregulated River Water Sources 2009
  • Water Sharing Plan for the Coffs Harbour Area Unregulated and Alluvial Water Sources 2009
  • Water Sharing Plan for the Lower North Coast Unregulated and Alluvial Water Sources 2009
  • Water Sharing Plan for the Barwon-Darling Unregulated and Alluvial Water Sources 2012.

Hunter, Peel Valley, Central Coast, Coffs Harbour Area and Lower North Coast

We recommended that all the above water sharing plans be extended for two years until June 2022 to make required plan improvements and then replaced taking into consideration recommendations from our review.

The water sources for the Peel Valley will be split across four water sharing plans in July 2020. We recommended that priority issues carried over to the Water Sharing Plan for the Peel Regulated River 2020 be addressed by July 2020. Other issues should be addressed in the new plans by July 2022 to allow time for additional studies and consultation.

The Government supported our recommendations by approving the extension of Central Coast, Lower North Coast, Hunter and Coffs Harbour plans for up to two years. For the Peel Valley plan, the Government actioned four of our recommendations and will consider the remaining recommendations over the next two years.

Barwon-Darling

In July 2019, we released a draft report that identified key issues impacting on water management under the plan. The significant public interest in the plan and the draft report resulted in 1,231 public submissions, including 121 unique submissions.

In September 2019, we provided a final report to the Minister.

We recognised that the Water Management Act 2000 clearly prioritises protection of the water source and dependent ecosystems, followed by basic landholder rights including native title, and then other extractive uses. However, the current plan has not effectively achieved this prioritisation.

We made 17 recommendations to reverse the current trend towards collapse of the river system so that the river and its dependent species, communities and industries are put on a path towards long term health and resilience.

Professor Fran Sheldon of Griffith University provided a peer-reviewed technical review of the plan to inform our review.

In September 2019, the NSW Government provided a response to the recommendations in our final report and the Vertessy Report (Independent assessment of the 2018–19 fish deaths in the Lower Darling). The Government adopted a staged approach to:

  • Stage 1: Implement actions to better manage environmental water and the health of fish populations
  • Stage 2: Explore options for amending the Menindee Lakes Water Saving Project and improving Aboriginal outcomes
  • Stage 3: Make further improvements based on evidence.

Key documents

Hunter

  • Hunter - Final report (May 2020)
  • Hunter - Final report - Summary
  • Hunter - Final report - Government response (February 2021)

    • Peel Valley

  • Peel Valley - Final report (May 2020)
  • Peel Valley - Final report - Summary
  • Peel Valley - Final report - Government response (February 2021)

    • Central Coast