Gippsland Strategy Overview (PDF~1.6MB)

Overview: Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy

The Strategy identifies potential challenges for water management and opportunities to secure the region’s water supplies for the next 50 years. Consultation with regional water managers and the community helped to develop the policies and actions in this Strategy.

Providing increased certainty to water users and the environment

The Strategy aims to provide increased certainty to water users and environmental managers about their rights to water, the rules for sharing water at times of shortage and the processes for reviewing entitlements to account for long-term changes in water availability.

It does this by:

• recognising existing rights and confirming that permanent changes cannot be arbitrarily made to existing entitlements (Chapter 3, page 41)
• developing local management plans to enable more responsive local management of licensed water use (Chapter 3, pages 43-45)
• monitoring water use outside the entitlement framework to assess the potential risks to water supplies, including improving information about domestic and stock water use by registering new dams in rural residential areas and registering new domestic and stock bores (these requirements will also apply when a property changes ownership) (Chapter 3, pages 51–54)
• establishing arrangements to manage the adverse impacts of significant land use change on water availability (Chapter 3, page 51).

 

Right: Proportion of water that can be extracted from different sources.
Left: Average annual amount of water available for different areas.

Promoting sustainable use

The Strategy identifies potential increased demand for urban, industrial and rural users and considers how supplies may be affected by future droughts and climate variability. The Strategy aims to meet this increased demand in the face of climate uncertainty by:

Making the best use of existing supplies

Continuing to promote water efficiency by urban, industrial and rural users (Sections 4.1 and 4.2, pages 62 and 74): requiring water corporations to identify cost-effective water efficiency options in their water supply-demand strategies; supporting rebate programs for water efficient appliances for homes and small business; reviewing permanent water savings rules; and promoting best practice water management on farms through Irrigation Development Guidelines, Guidelines for Reasonable Domestic and Stock Use and promoting sustainable water management on dryland farms.

Exploring opportunities to improve storage capacity by, for example, using off-stream storages or aquifers (Sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4, pages 68 and 70): the Strategy encourages users to explore the option of harvesting water in wet periods for use in dry periods when this can be done without adversely affecting existing users and the environment, and includes actions to streamline the approval of storage construction and facilitate the use of managed aquifer recharge (i.e. storing water in an aquifer for future extraction).

Encouraging water users to trade water with other users where this is feasible (Chapter 4, page 63): the Strategy includes actions to increase the potential for trade such as: a market development and education program; enabling system-specific rules to be developed to free-up trade on systems where risks to third parties are low; adopting risk-based trade approval processes; and allowing licensed water users to enter into multi-year transfers or leases.

Exploring the potential to use alternative, fit-for-purpose supplies

Encouraging water corporations to use alternative supplies (Chapter 4, pages 73 & 78):  requiring water corporations to identify and evaluate potential alternative supply options in their water supply-demand strategies, including preparing a Water Atlas of alternative supplies in their area.

Facilitating integrated water planning (Chapter 4, page 79): encouraging local governments and water corporations to work together to ensure cost-effective opportunities for more efficient water supply and demand options are considered in the urban planning process as early as possible.

Improving processes for allocating stormwater (Chapter 4, page 73): the Strategy includes an action to work with local governments and water corporations to investigate the need to establish mechanisms for licensing stormwater from local government works to ensure stormwater is allocated efficiently with due consideration of downstream users and the environment. 

Making more water available for sustainable use

Adopting a balanced approach to releasing unallocated water for consumptive use: the Strategy promotes the sustainable use of existing and alternative supplies, but there is unallocated water in the region that could be used to meet current and future water needs. The Strategy promotes the staged release of the region’s unallocated water through auctions or competitive processes where possible. The region’s unallocated water includes: Unallocated surface water on unregulated streams available under the sustainable diversion limit for the winter-fill period, which will be made available on a precautionary basis and includes:

• 6 GL available in the Mitchell catchment, and 1.5 GL in the Tambo catchment (Chapter 6, page 123)
• 500 ML across each of the Genoa and Cann catchments, and a total of 500 ML across remaining catchments in Far East Gippsland (Chapter 7, page 156)
• 2.5 GL in the Tarwin catchment, 500 ML in the Powlett catchment, 300 ML in each of the Franklin, Albert, Ten Mile Creek, Dividing Creek and Nine Mile Creek/ Shady Creek catchments, and 500 ML across other catchments in South Gippsland (Chapter 5, page 104)

Making some water available from Blue Rock Reservoir (where Government holds a 35.6 per cent share of inflows and storage) for purchase by Gippsland Water (up to 3GL) and the lower Latrobe irrigators (up to 800ML) (Chapter 6, page 126).

Groundwater in the Moe, Leongatha, Tarwin and Wa De Lock Groundwater Management Areas, with limited availability outside these areas (see Chapter 3, page 37).

Relative Average annual shares of resource set aside for consumptive use, based on long-term climate

Protecting and improving the health of waterways, aquifers, wetlands and estuaries

The Strategy recognises the importance of healthy rivers, floodplains, wetlands and estuaries in delivering significant cultural, environmental, social and tourism benefits to the region. It aims to manage the environment’s needs by:

Increasing and protecting the environment’s share of water

Providing additional water to the environment including:

• Thomson Reservoir, where 8 GL will be made available to reduce the impact of the Thomson Dam and Melbourne diversions on the Thomson River (Chapter 6, page 144)
• Macalister River, where an additional 5.5 GL will be returned in early 2012 (Chapter 6, page 144)
• Blue Rock Reservoir, where 10 GL will be made available to the benefit of the lower Tanjil River, lower Latrobe River and lower Latrobe wetlands (Chapter 6, page 126).

Recovering water entitlements: The Strategy confirms that Victoria has achieved the 2012 targets for water recovery for the Snowy River, where 311 GL of water entitlements have been recovered (Chapter 7, page 164).

Establishing precautionary caps on unregulated rivers that have unallocated water available for consumptive use: the Strategy sets precautionary caps on unregulated river systems having regard to the potential benefits of making more water available, the likely demand, the risks to existing users and the environment, and uncertainty about future water availability (Chapter 4, page 85).

Making the best use of environmental water

Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH) managing environmental entitlements efficiently to deliver the highest value environmental outcomes: the Environmental Water Holder will hold and manage the environmental entitlements for the Latrobe, Thomson and Macalister systems. The VEWH also holds environmental entitlements in trust for the Snowy water recovery program, and manages the administrative requirements of these entitlements to ensure water is provided to the Snowy River but has no management role in the delivery of the water (Chapter 4, page 87).

Promoting the efficient use of environmental water: maximising the benefits of environmental water by: using structural works to deliver environmental water efficiently; carrying over water from one year to the next to manage variable flow conditions; and using consumptive water en route to deliver environmental or social benefits on its way to water users (Chapter 4, page 87).

Adopting an adaptive and integrated management approach

Undertaking complementary river restoration works and measures to improve waterways and wetlands: continuing to invest in complementary river restoration works and measures such as: revegetating waterways to improve fish habitat; stabilising beds and banks; fencing riparian frontage; and providing fish passage to allow fish movement and recolonisation (Chapter 4, page 89).

Using a seasonally adaptive approach: managing the environment’s needs using a seasonally adaptive approach that gives the greatest protection to the most important parts of the environment through dry and drought years, and builds ecological resilience in wetter years (Chapter 4, page 90).

The Strategy also identifies key policies and actions in relation to:

Establishing a drought reserve in Blue Rock Reservoir (Chapter 6, page 123)

The Government holds a 35 per cent share of unallocated water in Blue Rock Reservoir.  The Strategy includes an action to use the unallocated water to establish a drought reserve in Blue Rock Reservoir to give consumptive users the ability to buy this water during dry times.

The drought reserve will be created after allocations have been made available for:

• Purchase by Gippsland Water for urban and industrial use (up to 3 GL)
• An auction of up to 800 ML for the lower Latrobe irrigators
  
• The creation of a permanent high reliability environmental entitlement for the Latrobe River system that is equivalent to an annual 10 GL of water (a 9 per cent share of Blue Rock inflows and storage space).

As part of establishing a drought reserve, recreational opportunities on Lake Narracan will be improved by keeping levels suitable for recreational activities between December and April provided Blue Rock Reservoir is greater than 80 per cent full on 1 December.

Managing extractive industries and the impacts of mining on other groundwater users (Chapter 3, page 55)

The strategy recognises that extractive industries contribute significantly to the regional economy but have the potential to impact on the quantity and quality of the region’s resources.

The strategy includes policies and actions to protect the region’s water resources by:

• Ensuring that any proponents of new major earth resources projects are aware of the potential impacts of mining and other earth resource developments on water resources and the environment.
• Advocating for environmental management plans to be revised if significant new risks associated with oil and gas projects are identified, including risks associated with the Latrobe Group aquifer.
• Reviewing the licensing requirements under the Water Act 1989 for mines and quarries and taking steps to ensure they are applied consistently.

Managing the adverse impacts of significant land-use change on water availability (Chapter 3, page 49)

The Strategy proposes changes to the Water Act 1989 so the Minister for Water can declare “intensive management” areas to control the expansion of new forestry developments. The relevant rural water corporation will be required to approve developments covering at least 20ha or more than 10 per cent of a property.  The Minister for Water would appoint a regional committee to assess the need to declare an area.

At the current time the Government does not consider there to be a need to declare any intensive management areas in Gippsland.

Improving groundwater management (Chapter 3, page 54)

The Strategy recognises that groundwater will become an increasingly important resource for the region. It aims to improve groundwater management by aligning licensed groundwater use with the characteristics of each groundwater system, promoting sustainable use of the resource, and protecting the health of groundwater resources.

Greater involvement of Traditional Owners (Chapter 4, page 81)

Traditional Owners and Indigenous communities have a strong link to the region’s water resources. The Strategy includes an action to develop the capacity for Indigenous involvement in water management through scholarships, cadetships and traineeships within the water sector.