Link to this page: http://forum.huntervalleyprotectionalliance.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=344&p=397#p397
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NSW OFFICE OF WATER
Aquifer interference regulation
(http://www.water.nsw.gov.au/Water-management/Law-and-policy/Legal-reform/Legal-reform/default.aspx)
A new interim aquifer interference regulation takes effect from 1 July 2011 in NSW. This regulation requires new mining and petroleum exploration activities that take more than three megalitres per year from groundwater sources to hold a water access licence. This reform is an important step towards ensuring equitable sharing of groundwater amongst all water users.
The Regulation is available on the NSW legislation website – under week commencing 27 June
> Regulations and other statutory instruments
> Water Management (General) Amendment (Aquifer Interference) Regulation 2011 (PDF 180 KB).
(http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/sessionalview/sessional/sr/2011-309.pdf)
Obviously this is an important legislation. However, at a first look and without a detailed study, it is not clear how this will affect the CSG industry. Extraction of up to 3000 megaliters from each test well without license is a fair bit. How about when a gas field goes into production? Perhaps irrigators among us could make some sense of it all.
Tags: NSW,water,aquifer,regulation,CSG,exploration,201107