Protecting Gippsland's water future

This action is to provide an approach to managing unallocated water on unregulated rivers and streams, which balances the needs of consumptive users and the environment. The Victorian winter-fill Sustainable Diversion Limits have been updated and are applied when assessing applications for new surface water licences and transfers.

The Progress report considered that this action is progressing. The 2010 order applies to (PCV orders): Thomson, Latrobe, Bunyip, Yarra, Maribyrnong, Werribee, Moorabool, Barwon, Otway Coast River Basins.

We plan to update the 2010 PCV Surface Water Order.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This ongoing action contributes to improving knowledge about groundwater resources and identifies opportunities for further water to be made available with consideration of other users and the environment. To improve water supply for consumptive users, the GRSWS suggests that additional allocations of water from some groundwater systems may be possible.

The bioregional assessment process provided significant information about the region’s groundwater resources.

In addition to bioregional assessment in the Gippsland, DELWP has undertaken works under Water for Victoria (WfV) Action 8.11 to improve groundwater knowledge through inventory, statistical modelling, improved monitoring (telemetry and AMR), consolidating knowledge on groundwater and surface water interaction, climate impact on groundwater, incorporating climate change projection in site specific resource assessment and developing an approach for fit-for-purpose groundwater assessment. This work is continuing.

DELWP is piloting a study in Gippsland to develop a methodology for review of sustainable yield. If useful, this method will be applied state-wide to prioritise areas to undertake strategic groundwater resource assessment.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action is to provide more water to meet the needs of consumptive users in an environmentally sensitive manner. The staged release of unallocated water has been planned to give consumptive users greater access to the water in a manner informed by a better understanding of the sustainable yield of the relevant water system.

Unallocated water is identified and there is a mechanism in place to staged release unallocated water. This occurs through the WaterBid platform (SRW), launched in 2015.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action was to document existing management rules into local management plans. A LMP improves management by providing a more flexible way to clarify water sharing arrangements in most groundwater and unregulated surface water systems.

Documentation in LMPs will improve transparency and provide greater certainty to users about the processes for reviewing and changing these rules over time. The GRSWS envisaged that LMPs would be prepared by documenting the existing water trading rules, carryover (where appropriate) and caps (where set) in a defined area. LMPs could then be reviewed or amended as required. LMPs were to be publicly available on water corporations’ websites.

This action is considered achieved for a system when its existing rules are documented and published on the water corporation’s website, and many of the LMPs listed below are documentation of existing rules only.

In May 2014, the department released guidelines for preparing LMPs.

Under the guidelines, consultation is not required if the corporation considers the existing rules are sufficient and working effectively and has no immediate concern about reliability of supply, and proceeds to document the existing rules.

Consultation is required if the water corporation decides to review and amend a LMP (such as if new information becomes available, concerns arise about the reliability of supply or the existing rules stop working effectively).

LMPs were developed for all surface water systems listed in the GRSWS including for the Latrobe River, South Gippsland, East Gippsland (included in the Snowy River Basin), Tambo River, Mitchell River, Snowy River and Thomson River (included in the Avon River Basin LMP) basins. Groundwater catchment statements were developed for each groundwater catchment listed in the GRSWS, summarising the statutory management plans and local management plans within each catchment.

LMPs are available at Southern Rural Water’s website under Groundwater management rules and plans. See Actions 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 for actions relating to region-specific LMPs.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2010 to 2016

This action was to review the process and establish opportunities for streamlining surface water and groundwater management plans to provide more efficient water management. Statutory management plans are administratively costly and can take more than 2 years to develop.

In the meantime, local management plans have been the main way groundwater and unregulated surface water is managed. After a review of WSPA processes, amendments to the Water Act were proposed in the Water Bill 2014, but the Bill did not proceed through parliament. In line with WfV Action 8.9, the department intends to streamline the process and will propose amendments to the Act at the next opportunity.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2012 to 2013

This action is linked to WfV Action 8.2, which is in progress with a revised timeframe.

The department has commenced a desktop review of the merits of converting licences into water shares and other products.

When WfV Action 8.2 is reported as completed, the SWS reporting should update the action status incorporating Water for Victoria findings.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Being progressed through Water for Victoria

Delivery period: NA

This ongoing action contributes to improving information-sharing about climate variability and risks. Research reports by the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative (SEACI) is available on its website.

In 2013, DELWP, the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO launched the Victorian Climate Initiative (VicCI); and its research, which covers climate change’s past impacts and projections for Victoria, is available on its website.

In 2017, the Victorian Water and Climate Initiative was launched, which will look at past, current and future climate research.

Communicating research results to the water sector is an important function of the initiative.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action contributed to a revised and improved groundwater monitoring network. Groundwater in Victoria is monitored mainly through the State Observation Bore Network (SOBN). At the time of the publication of the GRSWS, groundwater monitoring infrastructure was inadequate in some areas. Who would fund the SOBN was also unclear, which put at risk the long-term maintenance and operation of the network.

The SOBN was restructured soon after the GRSWS was published. The restructured SOBN is now a regional monitoring network with a clearly defined purpose for each site. The ageing monitoring infrastructure has been upgraded through a program of bore refurbishment works.

Key stakeholders have been identified for each monitoring site, and the approach to future cost-sharing is to be negotiated.

Annual expenditure on maintaining and developing the SOBN is currently being reported.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2013 to 2014

This ongoing action helps to ensure funding for maintaining and renewing Victoria’s monitoring network. A formal process was needed to determine an operating and maintenance program that shares costs on a beneficiary-pays basis.

Costs are shared between the department (funded through the Environment Contribution Levy) and water corporations (funded through fees and charges approved through the Essential Services Commission’s pricing determination processes).

For groundwater, monitoring costs are covered by a partnership of water corporations, CMAs and DELWP.

For surface water monitoring, costs are covered by a partnership of water corporations, CMAs, local governments, the Bureau of Meteorology and DELWP. Funding for monitoring may be under pressure, with an ongoing issue relating to the need for more monitoring versus capacity to pay.

Since 2011, approximately $ 1,500,000 has been invested in the Gippsland region into improving asset condition and capacity to capture monitoring data (loggers and telemetry expansion and upgrades) and post-flood recovery works and OH&S improvements.

This has improved the reliability of the asset performance, introduced data logging and telemetry and reduced the overall cost of monitoring in some systems.

The Progress report supports ongoing funding for future maintenance and renewal of the monitoring network.

Where gaps in the monitoring network are identified, this action supports inclusion of filling gaps as part of the network “renewal”.

The forward works program is now submitted for consideration under routine budgetary processes.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action focused on amending the Water Act 1989 to enable the Minister for Water to declare and manage an area according to the process explained in the GRSWS. To better manage the impact of land use change on water resources, the GRSWS proposed a process to declare intensive management areas, based on the intensity of water stress, the significance of water-dependent values and the potential for land use changes to affect these values. Intensive management areas would have specific rules and management actions to ensure the integrity of high-value water systems are maintained. Amendments to the Act to declare intensive management areas were proposed in the Water Bill 2014, but the Bill did not proceed through parliament.

Drivers for large-scale forestry have changed since 2011. In the 10 years prior to the development of the SWS, the area of commercial hardwood plantations in Victoria doubled. Since then, the Victorian ‘State of the forests’ five yearly report (2018) confirms that plantation areas have gradually decreased. No new plantation areas have been established since the 2012-13 financial year.

WfV recognises that large-scale changes in land use could affect water availability by intercepting water that would otherwise reach streams and aquifers. This can affect the water resource, entitlement holders and the environment. It changed the focus the SWS proposed and focused on better recording and reporting of emerging significant uses of water. For commercial plantation forestry, this reflected the reduced development compared to that expected when the Strategy was developed.

However, there is a recent interest in expanding plantation forestry for production purposes and for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. The Victorian Government pledged $110 million in the 2017-18 budget to assist with plantation development in the Latrobe Valley, with the first areas to be planted in 2019. In 2018, the Australian Government announced funding of $20 million between 2018 and 2022, to underpin growth in Australia’s renewable timber and wood-fibre industry. South West Victoria was chosen as one of the four pilot Regional Forestry Hubs. The Commonwealth also offers financial support for a number of activities that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Climate Solutions Fund. Some commercial plantations, revegetation and farm forestry activities may be eligible.

The Progress report highlighted the importance to have a process in place to manage adverse water resources impacts from land use change.

The department will revisit the state-wide approach to manage the impact of plantations on water availability, update the information and incorporate changes in circumstances since the Strategy was released, such as the shift in drivers influencing land use change, as well as other relevant plans and policies.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This action is to improve understanding about the impact of land use changes on water use and the capability to estimate and report on these interactions. New technologies (such as satellite imagery and remote-sensing) are improving our understanding of how changes in land use affect water resources, and the importance of this understanding is increasingly recognised.

In 2011–12, the National Water Commission funded the then Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) to prepare the groundwork to regularly estimate and report on water use by land use.

Evapotranspiration is the technical term for the water cycle. This work included estimates of evapotranspiration, which is a key water use in vegetated landscapes. DSE contracted consultants to provide the tools and guidance to make evapotranspiration estimates, and they are now made annually using Victorian Land Use Information System land use data.

However, water use estimates are only reported at a whole-of-basin scale, and they are not broken down by land use category or land use change.

While land use and vegetation cover will influence evapotranspiration, climatic conditions have a larger impact on changes in evapotranspiration. Given this, the estimates of evapotranspiration in the Victorian Water Accounts will continue to use climatic information as the basis for annual reporting of evapotranspiration.

Since 2011, drivers for land use change across Victoria, particularly relating to the development of plantation forestry, have changed. Plantation areas across Victoria have been generally steady for the past decade. Changes in land use will be tracked using available information, such as the 5-yearly State of the Forests report, which reports the area of plantation forest across the State. Estimates of evapotranspiration will incorporate land use changes on a 10-yearly basis.

This timing aligns with the commitment to review the net take from plantation forestry in Victoria’s WRPs under the Basin Plan. More frequent updates may be undertaken if significant land use changes are identified in the intervening period.

The department to estimate evapotranspiration in the Victorian Water Accounts based on annual climatic conditions. Land use changes will be incorporated periodically, to align with other reporting obligations, such as the 10-year review of the Basin Plan.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This action was to improve knowledge of farm dams to enhance understanding of overall water harvesting within a catchment. The Water Bill 2014 proposed amendments to do this, but it did not proceed through parliament. Regulations requiring registration of new and modified farm dams in rural residential areas were revoked in 2017 after a review found they did not achieve their purpose and were an unreasonable burden on dam owners.

WtV Action 8.4 Better record and report on emerging significant uses of water (a) reinforced the importance to investigate the need to introduce reasonable use limits for domestic and stock rights under section 8 of the Water Act 1989.

The need to increase the information on domestic and stock dams and bores and ways to do this will be reassessed in consideration of the reasonable use for domestic and stock. The department will consult with stakeholders and the community about options to progress this action.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This action was to improve knowledge of farm dams to enhance understanding of overall water harvesting within a catchment.

The Water Bill 2014 proposed amendments to do this, but it did not proceed through parliament. Regulations requiring registration of new and modified farm dams in rural residential areas were revoked in 2017 after a review found they did not achieve their purpose and were an unreasonable burden on dam owners.

WfV Action 8.4 Better record and report on emerging significant uses of water (a) reinforced the importance to investigate the need to introduce reasonable use limits for domestic and stock rights under section 8 of the Water Act 1989.

The Progress report reinforced that registering domestic and stock bores is important for improving accountability for the volume of water taken for domestic and stock purposes and important for an equity perspective (fairness in access to water resources).

The need to increase the information on domestic and stock dams and bores and ways to do this will be reassessed in consideration of the reasonable use for domestic and stock. The department will consult with stakeholders and the community about options to progress this action.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This ongoing action contributes to improving knowledge about unaccounted water use which will help to improve management of water use outside the entitlement framework. National Water Commission funding initiated the action.

Although the NWC has been dismantled, the Victorian Water Accounts include estimates of water use by small catchment dams. Further, all domestic and stock bores require a construction licence and estimated use volumes are reported in the water accounts. WfV Action 8.4 commits to recording and reporting on all emerging significant uses of water.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

The action was completed through the department's Secure Allocations, Future Entitlements project. The groundwater catchments that were introduced after the project reflected connected groundwater resources and flow systems.

All groundwater resources are within a groundwater catchment, allowing for amalgamation of management areas and for management to be documented for all groundwater resources.

As knowledge improves, there will be further changes to management areas to reduce administration and costs and to support market development.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2012

This action is to enable the Victorian Government to request updates to environmental plans for offshore oil and gas extraction, if that extraction has significant impacts onshore.

To date, there have been no new Environmental Plans submitted that would impact the Latrobe Aquifer. Opportunities to comment on environmental plans are ongoing.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This action requires the Victorian Government to review the licensing requirements under the Water Act 1989 for mines and quarries and take steps to ensure they are applied consistently across Victoria. Amendments to achieve the action were proposed in the Water Bill 2014, but the Bill did not proceed through parliament.

The Progress report confirmed that this action is progressing.

This issue will continue to be pursued as part of future amendments to the Water Act 1989.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Partly or not yet achieved

Delivery period: NA

This action facilitates improved understanding of coastal subsidence. A trial satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) study was successfully completed in 2012.

An ongoing InSAR monitoring program based on the pilot study was developed, completing the action. The monitoring program as planned has not been implemented.

Since the trial study, additional high-resolution light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data has been collected for Gippsland, and there is an ongoing program to collect this data.

The department intends to review the need for further monitoring and the best method for any ongoing subsidence monitoring program.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and completed

Delivery period: 2014

This ongoing action assists in protecting the region’s groundwater resources. New technologies and industries that affect water resources and water users include geothermal energy and carbon capture and storage.

DELWP and DEDJTR have studied the impacts of emerging technologies and industries through small-scale trials and regional studies of the likelihood and impacts of coal seam gas and shale gas development.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing

This ongoing action contributes to greater recognition, knowledge and consideration of the impact that bushfire management actions have on water quality and quantity. Bushfires can reduce water quality, and since the GRSWS some strategic bushfire plans have considered water quality.

The Integrated Forest Ecosystem Research Program also continues to study bushfire impacts on forested catchments including on water quality and quantity. When prioritising planned burns, planners consider wildfire risks to water quality and quantity and how planned burns can reduce this risk.

Action status (5-yearly assessment 2018): Achieved and ongoing

Delivery period: Ongoing