Implementing environmental water charges

Water corporations that act as storage or system operators provide services to water customers, including environmental water holders, and recover the costs of providing those services from the customers that use them. Policy 8.8 of the Victorian Waterway Management Strategy, released in October 2013, provides that environmental water holders will pay applicable charges for the costs incurred by storage system operators to store and deliver environmental water.This initiative provides the funding required under Policy 8.8 to enable the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH) and its delivery partners to meet the costs of storing and delivering environmental water and to maximise the environmental outcomes of the state's environmental water holdings.

Total EC3 investment to date: $3.878 m

2014-15 expenditure: $3.755 m 
2015-16 expenditure: $0.123 m

Progress

Funding of $3.755 m was provided to VEWH in 2014-15 to meet the additional storage charges and delivery charges for the 2014-15 financial year associated with implementation of the Victorian Waterway Management Strategy Policy 8.8.

In 2015-16, these increased costs were mostly met by funding allocated to the Sustainable Water Management – Healthy waterways initiative .

The costs associated with environmental water entitlements managed by VEWH and delivered by waterway managers on behalf of other entitlement holders (The Living Murray program and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder) were identified to ensure these costs are passed on to the appropriate entitlement holders.

Work continues to be progressed to provide guidance to water corporations to clarify the nature of charges applicable to environmental water holdings.