Draft amendments to the Barwon-Darling water sharing plan
Public comment on the proposed change to the Water Sharing Plan for the Barwon-Darling Unregulated River Water Source 2012 ran from Wednesday, 1 June to Friday, 8 July 2022.
Feedback submitted by members of the community will now be considered by the department.
A summary of feedback will be used to develop and publish a 'what we heard' document.
Submissions will be published on the website, in accordance with the department’s privacy policy.
If you have any questions, you can email the project team on barwondarlingunreg.wsp@dpie.nsw.gov.au
The water sharing plan establishes rules for water management including the limit of the total volume of water that may be extracted from the Barwon-Darling Unregulated River Water Source.
During the submission period the department sought stakeholder views on the proposed amendments that aimed to improve the operation and implementation of plan rules, provide additional opportunities for trade and introduce new rules to better regulate and manage floodplain harvesting in the Barwon-Darling Unregulated River Water Source.
The proposed changes include:
- floodplain harvesting provisions to enable licensing and regulation of floodplain harvesting in the plan area
- establishing rules for temporary trade of Individual Daily Extraction Components (IDECs) within river sections
- allowing access announcements to be amended within 24 hours – for example, when there is more water in the river than forecast due to unforeseen circumstances like local rainfall events
- allowing forecast flow data at both reference gauges to be used to make flow class announcements when one of those gauges is not working
- clarifying how the cumulative flow trigger that relaxes the resumption of flows rule works
- making administrative amendments – including removing redundant clauses and notes, updating contact information and updating standard clause wording to be consistent with recent changes to other water sharing plans
If the change is supported, it will take effect from when the associated amendment order is published on the NSW legislation website.
Public stakeholders can still
- read the supporting material:
- read the draft amended Barwon-Darling water sharing plan and the accompanying table summarising where in the plan changes are proposed
- visit the floodplain harvesting webpage for detailed information about draft rules for floodplain harvesting access licences in the Barwon-Darling
- view the map of the Barwon-Darling water sharing plan area
If you require assistance reading these documents, please contact 1300 081 047 or water.enquiries@dpie.nsw.gov.au.
| Location | Description | Related information | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Webinar | Information session | Western projects webinar presentation - 6 June 2022 (PDF, 3282.08 KB) | |