Gingin groundwater allocation plan. For public comment
The Department of Water is responsible for allocating and licensing the state’s water resources. The Gingin groundwater allocation plan: for public comment replaces the previous Gingin plan released 10 years ago and sets out how the department will continue to allocate and license groundwater in the Gingin plan area.
The Director General acknowledges that easily accessible , good quality groundwater is essential to industries in the Gingin plan area but that it is also essential that water is available to maintain the groundwater dependent environment. She also points out that demands on the resource are becoming greater and are projected to increase further as Perth expands northward all in a climate which is changing to produce less rainfall and thus reduced groundwater recharge.
The take home message is that we are all going to have to do more with less!
The Plan can be viewed at the Gingin Shire office, local library, school library or on the DoW website, most easily visited via the Gingin Water Group link from www.ginginwater.org.au
Public comments are requested by 6 December 2013. GWG have been kept well informed throughout the process since 2009 and most of the community concerns appear to have been addressed. The community challenge will be to follow the monitoring and evaluation processes as changes occur over the next 10 years.
Community members are invited to a public forum at the Granville centre on Thursday 19 September 2013 between 11am and 1 pm where the Department of Water will explain and answer individual questions.
The following is part 1 of a brief 3 part summary provided for NV News.
The Plan document which is divided into six sections:
1. Plan purpose and scope
2. What the plan will achieve
3. Water allocation limits
4. Water allocation and licensing approach
5. Monitoring program for the Gingin groundwater plan area
6. Implementing and evaluating the plan
The 50 page document is very readable and clearly illustrated with maps and tables. The scientific background and basis for the allocation limits and policy statements made in the Plan is not included. This information is often complex but clearly referenced throughout the text.
The purpose of the plan is to reduce the likelihood of:
• decreasing reliability of current licensed entitlements
• further declines in groundwater levels and pressure heads
• decreasing groundwater contribution (baseflow) to Gingin Brook and Moore River
• damage to and loss of important groundwater-dependent ecosystems
• the seawater interface moving inland, making groundwater saline.
Maps show the Plan area to extend from the northern line between Grey and Moora southward to between Guilderton and Bindoon with an east side extension down to Muchea.This Plan area is divided into 25 subareas based upon the various water containing aquifers across the region and using natural regional divisions DoW describes a total of 35 water resources.
A “water resource” is a portion of a particular aquifer present in a particular subarea. Using the best knowledge available to them the DoW set allocation limits for each of the resources. Through an ongoing process of bore monitoring, rainfall data , stream flow monitoring and modelling techniques annual reviews of the Plan will endeavour to track recharge to, and abstraction from , these 35 resources to ensure a sustainability of supply.
It is imperative the community keeps the Gingin Water Group viable and active to continue to represent local interests in the huge monitoring task ahead. DoW indicates that water is still available for licensing in 16 out of the 25 subareas in the Gingin Plan.
In an effort to provide extra protection to the Gingin regions connected to the Gnangara mound the area south of the Gingin brook and the Moore river is now treated in the Gnangara Ground Water Allocation Plan(DoW 2009) The DoW began development of the Gingin Plan in 2009.
Main questions addressed were:
• How reduced rainfall affected recharge
• To identify and quantify groundwater level declines
• How can effects of a drying climate be managed
• Identify stakeholder values and concerns
• How to support the groundwater dependent environment
• Can current and future demand for groundwater be met.
The DoW acknowledged the concern of farmers that their licence entitlements will be affected by other nearby abstractions or over usage in Perth influencing Gingin groundwater resources. The high social and environmental value the community attached to the Gingin brook and Moore river was also noted.
The need to improve opportunities to trade water in areas that are fully allocated was also important. Sections 2 (What the Plan will achieve) and 3( Water allocation limits) will be summarised in NV News (October) with sections 4, 5 and 6 discussed in the November edition.
