Sydney

Water Rights

The operating rules and constraints governing water entitlements, allocations, trades and transfers are provided on this page.

Operating Rules and Constraints

Operating rules for water right holders

Water right holders in the Sydney region operate within the provisions of the Water Act 1912 (New South Wales) to fulfil responsibilities assigned to them except for the Kangaroo River. The Water sharing plan for the Kangaroo River water source, which is in accordance with the Water Management Act 2000 (New South Wales), provides the operating rules for the Kangaroo River. In addition to this legislation, water management licences issued to major water utilities guide them in the fulfilment of the responsibilities assigned to them (Table A1). For water right holders (major water utility, local water utility or individual holder), provisions made in legislation and water management licences define:

water entitlements allocated

temporal, spatial and volumetric conditions of using the entitlements

environmental and any other obligations.

Water restriction rules

Urban water utilities introduce water restrictions in the Sydney region when there are supply limitations. Water restrictions for the area managed by Sydney Water are authorised by the Minister for Water in NSW. For the other areas within the Sydney region, respective urban water utilities decide and authorise water restrictions. See the notes Water restrictions for details of water restrictions applicable to urban water utilities within the region.

Licences operating under the Water Act 1912 (New South Wales) are not categorised by licence type, but each licence has purposes attached to it. These purposes are given a proportion of the overall licence entitlement and provide an indication of both what the licensed water is to be used for (in a specified land) and its level of security.

a separated water entitlement that can be traded or sold independently of land

an indication of the security level associated with the licence.

General notes on water entitlements in the Sydney region

The legislative water resource management framework applicable for the Sydney region is being transitioned from the Water Act 1912 (New South Wales) to the Water Management Act 2000 (New South Wales). These changes are occurring on a phased basis while water sharing plans are put in place and Water Act 1912 licences (which applied to abstraction/extraction of water across the whole State) are converted to the new water access licences. Therefore NSW is currently operating under the two Acts.
The Water Management Act 2000 (New South Wales) sets the priorities for water sharing and defines them depending on water access licence/entitlement categories. The environment has first priority, followed by basic rights (domestic and stock rights, harvestable rights and Native Title Rights) and then all other licensed rights.

Water access entitlements

Water access entitlements as defined in the Water Management Act 2000 (New South Wales) provide the owner to specified shares in the available water within a particular water management area or from a specific water source. The share component may be expressed as a specified maximum volume over a particular period, as a specific proportion of the available water, a specified proportion of the storage capacity within a particular reservoir, or storage network or inflow to that reservoir.

The share component of the access licence is the volume share of water made available in a water source. The amount of water a licence holder is allocated in any year as a result of an available water determination is based on their share component. Other rules, such as carryover, are also based on the share component.

An announcement regarding the water availability determination is made with regards to a water source and access licence category and applies to all access licences in the water source with that licence category. The key elements of an announcement are:

Shares in available water may be assigned generally or to specified categories of water access licences. The specified categories of water access entitlements defined in the Water Management Act 2000 (New South Wales) are:

regulated river (high security) access licence, licence pertaining to a regulated stream for which the supply of water is guaranteed irrespective of circumstances. Usually applies to town water supplies and irrigation of permanently established crops such as orchards

regulated river (general security) access licence, licence relating to a regulated stream for which water orders are accepted subject to storage/demand circumstances

aquifer access licence, licence granting access to use of an amount of water from an aquifer

estuarine water access licence, water access licence for the waters between the mouth of a river and the coastal waters of the State

coastal water access licence

supplementary water access licence, holders of supplementary access licences are able to extract water during announced periods when flows exceed those required to meet other licensed obligations and environmental needs

major utility access licence

local water utility access licence, a category of licence issued for town water supplies

Harvestable rights

Harvestable rights allow landholders in most rural areas to collect a proportion of the run-off on their property and store it in one or more farm dams up to a certain size. Since they do not involve extraction directly from the river they are generally not provided for in water sharing plans.
Table R1 presents information on entitlements and basic rights for water in the Sydney region.

Table R1. Details of entitlements and basic rights for water in the Sydney region

Unregulated flow extraction for various purposes including irrigation, commercial, industry and environmental

Riparian basic right

Riparian right holders in a number of rivers in the region

32,528

Right to extract water to meet basic household requirements

Cultural basic right

Native title holders in the Kangaroo River

27

Anyone who holds native title with respect to water, as determined under the Native Title Act 1993 (Commonwealth), can take and use water for a range of needs, without holding a water access licence

Groundwater entitlements

Urban class

140

Local water utilities

Stock and domestic class

Included in other lumped class

Stock and domestic

Other lumped class

62,204

For various purposes including irrigation, commercial and industry

Groundwater basic right

Groundwater basic right holders

19,652

Right to extract water to meet basic household requirements

Total

1,311,951

Groundwater entitlements and rights represent less than 6% of all water rights in the Sydney region. Currently there is no reliable quantification method to estimate the extractable or used volumes of groundwater. Therefore, information about groundwater assets and use is not included in this accounting report.

Hydroelectric power generation

Eraring Energy is entitled to interchange up to a maximum of 4,021 ML between Lake Yarrunga and Fitzroy Falls Reservoir and 880 ML between Bendeela Pondage and Lake Yarrunga at any time for hydropower generation (source: Eraring Energy Water Management Licence). Eraring Energy is permitted to increase the interchanging volume between Lake Yarrunga and Fitzroy Falls Reservoir under the following circumstances:

during periods of unusually high power demand

in the event of failure of other generating stations in the State energy network or major power failure

times when Fitzroy Falls Reservoir is spilling to Yarrunga Creek, subject to any environmental flow requirements in Yarrunga Creek.

Eraring Energy’s rights to divert water for hydropower generation are not included in Table R1.

Water Allocations

The water year for water allocations and use in the Sydney region is from 1 July to 30 June. There is no formal process for allocation announcements in the Sydney region. When there is limited supply of water, authorities announce on an as needs basis restrictions to eligible allocations.

The following water allocation provisions apply for regulated water access entitlements (urban class/arrangement), unregulated water access entitlements (urban holders, individual holders for stock and domestic and other lumped holders) and groundwater entitlements (stock and domestic, urban and lumped class):

For each licence category in the region, water available for the year is assumed to be 100% of the share component stated on the entitlement for areas where no restriction announcement occurred.

The amount of water a licence holder is allocated (as a result of an allocation announcement by NSW Office of Water if applicable, expressed as a percentage of the entitlement’s share component) and the amount they can take in any year is calculated as the percentage of their annual share component stated on the entitlement.

For some licence categories, individual entitlement holders and authorised local water utilities can abstract twice the annual allocation in a given year if water is available. They are (i) regulated water access entitlements (urban class/arrangement) and (ii) unregulated water access entitlements (urban holders, individual holder for stock and domestic and other lumped holders). However, the holder should not abstract more than three times the annual allocation in any consecutive three years.

There is no allocation determination for basic rights per se; however, in times of limited supply, there may be restrictions on taking water for domestic and stock uses under riparian rights and groundwater basic rights.

For the other areas in the Sydney region, Division 4C - Transfer of water allocations in the Water Act 1912 (New South Wales) makes provisions for water transfers. However, the required mechanisms for such transfers do not currently exist. As a result no water trading was recorded in the Sydney region during 2009-10.

Please note the Copyright Notice and Disclaimer statements relating to the use of the information on this site and our site Privacy and Accessibility statements. Users of these web pages are deemed to have read and accepted the conditions described in the Copyright, Disclaimer, and Privacy statements. Please also note the Acknowledgement notice relating to the use of information on this site. No unsolicited commercial email.