Twenty-seven new water licences will be granted in the Border Rivers and Moonie water plan area and another 28 existing licences amended under the new Water Entitlement Notice (WEN) published today by the Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers.
The WEN provides for the relevant take of overland flow water on the Border Rivers and Moonie floodplains, in alignment with the Border Rivers and Moonie water plan.
The department consulted with landholders, peak bodies and key stakeholders in development and finalisation of the WEN.
Out of 36 landholders affected by the WEN, 15 put forward a submission on the draft WEN for the department to review.
Submissions were subsequently reviewed by an independent referral panel. The panel made recommendations to the department and the department adopted all recommendations.
South Region Executive Director Hamish Butler said the WEN was a crucial step to provide certainty and improve measurement of overland flow water in this region, meeting key commitments to the Australian Government to enhance measurement and compliance.
“We have consulted extensively with landholders in this area and worked closely with peak bodies and other key stakeholders to ensure we get the balance right,” Mr Butler said.
“We are focused on ensuring there is certainty for landholders by granting water licences that specify a volume of overland flow water that can be taken”
“No landholder is worse off because of today’s WEN publication.”
Affected landholders have provided input and significant investment into the WEN over several years, including formally notifying the overland flow works on their property and, more recently, providing reporting that certifies these works by a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland.
Landholders with new water licenses will now be able to trade river-based water allocations used for water harvesting and undertake modifications and enhancements to their property, that best suit their individual needs.
The volume of take is representative of the long-term average annual volume of water that could have been taken when the moratoriums of the construction of new works or enlarging existing works for the take and storage of overland flow water were introduced, in September 2000 for the Border Rivers and 2001 for the Moonie catchments.
Existing river-based water allocations are not affected in any way by the WEN.
The notice comes into effect today.
For more information visit department’s website: www.dlgwv.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2066618/border-rivers-moonie-wen.pdf
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