Amendments to the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan

This amendment was proposed by the South East Natural Resources Management Board and accepted by the Minister. These amendments fixed errors in the Plan or made formatting changes. The changes did not change the operation of the policy.

Principle 135 on page 115 of the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan was amended to include all management areas in the description.

Prior to amendment principle 135 read:

Notwithstanding principles 127-131, if a risk assessment process which is re-run prior to 1 July 2019, determines that the Coles, Frances, Hynam East, Zone 2A, and/or Zone 5A management areas are identified as a low to moderate risk of degradation, reductions may be discontinued and the TML set at the volume of water (holding) allocations and the tradeable components and/or specialised production requirements of water (taking) allocations, and allocations attached to forest water licences, plus the allowance for stock and domestic use and farm forestry, calculated at 30 June 2020.

Principle 135 now reads:

Notwithstanding principles 127-131, if a risk assessment process which is re-run prior to 1 July 2019, determines that the Coles, Short, Frances, Hynam East, Zone 2A, Zone 3A and/or Zone 5A management areas are identified as a low to moderate risk of degradation, reductions may be discontinued and the TML set at the volume of water (holding) allocations and the tradeable components and/or specialised production requirements of water (taking) allocations, and allocations attached to forest water licences, plus the allowance for stock and domestic use and farm forestry, calculated at 30 June 2020.

This amendment was proposed by the South East Natural Resources Management Board and accepted by the Minister. These amendments addressed a number of unfair assumptions or positions contained or reflected in the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan.

Principle 28 on page 95 of the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan relates to delivery supplements in the unconfined aquifer and was amended.

Prior to amendment principle 28 read:

The Minister will not consider:

a) any request under principles 19 or 20 received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on the nearest business day following six months after date of adoption; and

b) for the purposes of principles 26 and 27:

1. any request received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on the nearest business day following six months after date of adoption; and

2. where no Annual Water Use Report for any of the 2010/11 or 2011/12 water use years was received by DFW (now DEWNR) by 31 July 2012; instead the licensee will be considered to have carried out no flood or spray irrigation during the 2010/11 and 2011/12 water use years.

Principle 28 now reads:

The Minister will not consider:

a) any request under principles 19 or 20 received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on Thursday 24 December 2015; and

b) for the purposes of principles 26 and 27:

1. any request received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on Thursday 24 December 2015; and

2. where no Annual Water Use Report for any of the 2010/11 or 2011/12 water use years was received by DFW (now DEWNR) by 31 July 2012; instead the licensee will be considered to have carried out no flood or spray irrigation during the 2010/11 and 2011/12 water use years.

Principle 194 on page 133 of the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan relates to delivery supplements in the confined aquifer and was amended.

Prior to amendment principle 194 read:

The Minister will not consider:

a) any request under principles 186 or 187 received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on the nearest business day following six months after date of adoption;

b) and for the purposes of principles 192 and 193:

1. any request received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on the nearest business day following six months after date of adoption; and

2. where no Annual Water Use Report for any of the 2010/11 or 2011/12 water use years was received by DFW (now DEWNR) by 31 July 2012; instead the licensee will be considered to have carried out no flood or spray irrigation during the 2010/11 and 2011/12 water use years.

Principle 194 now reads:

The Minister will not consider:

a) any request under principles 186 or 187 received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on Thursday 24 December 2015; and

b) for the purposes of principles 192 and 193:

1. any request received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on Thursday 24 December 2015; and

2. where no Annual Water Use Report for any of the 2010/11 or 2011/12 water use years was received by DFW (now DEWNR) by 31 July 2012; instead the licensee will be considered to have carried out no flood or spray irrigation during the 2010/11 and 2011/12 water use years.

Principle 197 on page 134 of the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan relates to specialised production requirements in the confined aquifer and was amended.

Prior to amendment principle 197 read:

The Minister will not consider any request under principle 195 received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on the nearest business day following six months after date of adoption.

Principle 197 now reads:

The Minister will not consider any request under principle 195 received by DEWNR after 5 p.m. on Thursday 24 December 2015.

This amendment was proposed by the South East Natural Resources Management Board and accepted by the Minister. These amendments fixed errors in the Plan or made formatting changes. Some amendments were to address an unfair, inappropriate or unsustainable assumptions or positions contained or reflected in the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan.

Principle 73 on page 106 of the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan had a formatting error and was amended.

Prior to amendment principle 73 read:

For the purposes of principle 72, where the licensee is not the registered proprietor of the land, the relevant Certificate(s) of Title will only be endorsed on the licence for:

a)

b) a maximum of five years unless otherwise specified in the written statement, where the subject land is in the same management area as the one the licence is referenced to; a maximum of five years, if the subject land is in a different management area than the one the licence is referenced to.

Principle 73 now reads:

For the purposes of principle 72, where the licensee is not the registered proprietor of the land, the relevant Certificate(s) of Title will only be endorsed on the licence for:

a) a maximum of five years unless otherwise specified in the written statement, where the subject land is in the same management area as the one the licence is referenced to;

b) a maximum of five years, if the subject land is in a different management area than the one the licence is referenced to.

Principle 156, seventh paragraph referred to the incorrect principle numbers and was amended.

Prior to amendment this paragraph read:

The purpose of the monitoring is to assess the success with which the environmental protection policy (section 6.2.3-6.2.5 and 6.2.82-6.2.87) protects these underground water dependent ecosystems, both at each site and more generally at a regional scale.

The paragraph now reads:

The purpose of the monitoring is to assess the success with which the environmental protection policy (principles 2-5 and 84-89) protects these underground water dependent ecosystems, both at each site and more generally at a regional scale.

Page 158, the last paragraph of 11.6 the word “identified” was spelt incorrectly and was amended.

Prior to amendment this paragraph read:

Evaluation and reporting of monitoring data for the 13 wetland complexes identified in Table 10 (Appendix of Figures and Tables) and for all high ecological value underground water dependent ecosystems identified for protection through the Plan, should be undertaken annually.

The paragraph now reads:

Evaluation and reporting of monitoring data for the 13 wetland complexes identified in Table 10 (Appendix of Figures and Tables) and for all high ecological value underground water dependent ecosystems identified for protection through the Plan, should be undertaken annually.

Page 170, Table 6 (Volumetric Conversion), Appendix of Figures and Tables was amended.

Prior to amendment Table 6 read:

Columns E, F and G refer to the bridging volume for the Stewarts management area as N/A (not applicable).

Table 6 now reads:

Stewarts management area: columns E 0.68, F 7.01 and G 1.17 ML/haIE

Page 172, Table 7 (Specialised Production Requirements), Appendix of Figures and Table was amended.

Prior to amendment Table 7 read:

The volumetric conversion zone of Monbulla was mistakenly omitted from Table 7.

Table 7 now reads:

Monbulla (ML per hectare of crop/infrastructure)

Grapevines Frost Control 1.55

Fruit Trees 0.38

Potatoes 1.35

Olives 0.28

Onions 1.10

Sub Clover Seed 0.31

Maximum Production Pasture:

Spray 1.27, Flood 2.51, Drip 1.20.

Page 52, Table 4.3., Page 52, b). Page 54, paragraphs 3-6 were amended.

Prior to amendment they read:

Refers to the “date of adoption” or “adoption date”.

They now read:

References to the “date of adoption” or “adoption date” amended to the “date of declaration”.

Page 54, paragraph 8 was amended.

Prior to amendment the paragraph read:

“Following the adoption of the Plan by the Minister, the Forest Threshold Expansion Opportunity shall cease to exist.”

The paragraph now reads:

“Following the declaration of the declared forestry area by the Minister, the Forest Threshold Expansion Opportunity shall cease to exist.”