Hon Diane Evers questions the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) regarding the Southern Forest Irrigation Scheme (SFIS), focusing on dam site topography, license volumes, water ownership, and potential impacts on self-supply irrigators due to climate change and government investment.

AnsweredQoN 2173Legislative Council
Asked
16 May 2019
Portfolio
Water

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Southern Forest Irrigation Scheme (SFIS), and I ask: (a) does the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) consider the topography of the proposed dam site during the license application; (b) does the measured volume of the dam have to equate to the volume of the surface water license; (c) is there a distinction between A class and variable take licenses in this respect; (d) does DWER have concerns about the ownership of water from the SFIS into the future? This is a major concern for many self-supply irrigators; and (e) in a drying climate where there is a real concern that water will be preferentially allocated to the SFIS due to the level of Government investment, what safe guards are there that self-supply licenses will not be impacted in this situation?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
6 August 2019
Responded by
Minister for Regional Development representing the Minister for Water
Response time
16 days
(a) Yes
(b) Yes
(c) No
(d) Water is not owned by water users - it is vested in the Crown, and allocated to water users through licences.
(e) The Department's allocation planning process ensures that climate change is considered in water allocation planning.

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