The NSW Office of Water (NOW) has notified the local community of statutory changes to the Mangrove Mountain Kulnura Ground Water Plan (MMKGWP).
The changes, which could impact on local drinking water supply via the Ourimbah Creek catchment, include the removal of the water sharing zones and the removal of the maximum allowable water take. Currently the Water Plan identifies eight areas (zones) of management within the source, five of which are shown as fully allocated. To prevent over allocation, all water buying/ selling (trading) must occur within a zone, importing allocations from other zones is prohibited.
Also, to ensure water sharing occurs fairly, water allocation is limited to 200 mega litres (M/L) per square kilometre. The changes would mean Rocla Materials, a New Zealand sand mining company operating a sand quarry at Calga, could buy the Water Access Licences (WALs) they require from another water sharing zone that is not connected to the same aquifer system. “Available WALs were one of the barriers for them because the quarry is located in zone seven of the Plan and this zone is already fully allocated, with no new WALs being issued,” said Camp Quoll spokesperson Mr Ian Sutton.
“Rocla can now purchase their water allocation from elsewhere, and then take the water from this already fully allocated water source. “Not only that, as long as they can get access to enough water licences, they will be able to legally extract as much water as they want, no maximum limit. “These legislative changes will create a free water market on the mountain and open the door for more extractive and mining industries to be attracted to the Central Coast.
“They will continue to destroy the aquifers and steal our water with more sand quarries, more bottled water companies, and even more, concerning the invasion of Coal Seam Gas,” said Mr Sutton. Community Environment Network (CEN) chairman Mr John Asquith said the proposal was madness. “It will allow zones that are already fully allocated to be granted increased allocation resulting in over allocation in that zone. “On top of this, they propose to abolish the maximum 200 M/L per square kilometre rule which currently prevents anyone, or a group of water users, from totally dominating an area.
“The high cost of buying water on the market (currently $5,000 – $10,000 per M/L) means locals will lose out. “The winners from the changes will be cashed up extractive industries (sand, coal, gas) and water trading speculators. “The losers will be local farmers and all Gosford citizens relying on drinking water.
“It is essential all our local water supplies are protected. “The environment, ground water and water catchment creeks are already under threat from extractive industries, rubbish dumps and gas,” said Mr Asquith.
Media release, 1 Jul 2014
John Asquith,
CEN Media release,
2 Jul 2014 Ian Sutton,
Camp Quoll