About the project
The coastal sustainable extraction project is building a framework to guide and inform the sustainable management of extraction in NSW coastal unregulated and alluvial and regulated water sharing plan areas.
Historically, long-term average annual extraction limits in coastal water sharing plans have been based on volumes of existing entitlement and estimates of basic landholder rights. This means the current limit of take is the total potential volume of water that can be taken under a licence and basic landholder rights.
The project will help us better understand sustainable extraction in coastal systems by developing a framework that uses best available environmental, cultural, economic and social inputs. This framework will be used across coastal water sharing plan areas to inform what management arrangements (that is, water sharing plan rules) can be used to support sustainable extraction.
The project includes all NSW coastal unregulated and alluvial and regulated water sharing plan areas. Groundwater-only plans are outside the scope of this project. All forms of extractive take will be considered where possible.
Project update
The department is currently reviewing the scope, timing and delivery approach for the Coastal Sustainable Extraction Project.
This page will be updated when the next steps for the project are confirmed.
Existing water sharing plan rules and extraction limits continue to apply. No decisions have been made through this project to change water access rules or long-term average annual extraction limits.
Stakeholders will be consulted before any proposed changes are progressed.
Background
Water sharing plans are the primary tool to define water-sharing arrangements in NSW; they share water between the environment and water users.
Water sharing plans set a limit on how much water can be extracted. This is called a long-term average annual extraction limit or LTAAEL. In coastal water sharing plans, the LTAAEL has historically been specified as the sum of licence shares, plus an estimate for basic landholder rights, at the time the water sharing plan was made.
In 2022, the coastal sustainable extraction project was initiated to better understand water requirements on the coast and improve how extraction can be managed sustainably to meet the needs of the environment and other users. For water sharing plans replaced post-2022, the department made changes to coastal LTAAELs, applying numerical LTAAELs. We are now doing the work to inform coastal sustainable extractions and how this can be implemented across our coastal water sources.
The project will, as much as possible, consider all forms of water take including:
- licensed water take
- basic landholder rights
- water taken out of a river or connected aquifer
- water intercepted in dams
- other diversion works.
Groundwater-only water sharing plans are outside the scope of this project. There is already a process for setting LTAAELs for coastal groundwater sources based on an assessment of sustainable yield from rainfall recharge.
Where appropriate, work undertaken as part of the coastal harvestable rights catchment-based assessments will be used to inform this project. If the project identifies water sources where sustainable levels of extraction are higher than current entitlement, then the department will consider options to best manage water access in these areas.
Prioritising this work to determine sustainable extraction in coastal catchments will provide an improved holistic understanding of water availability in coastal regions and guide how to improve the sustainable management of water access on the coast.
In recent reviews of coastal water sharing plans, the NSW Natural Resources Commission has recommended the review of coastal LTAAELs and the development of numerical, sustainable extraction limits. These ‘sustainable LTAAELs’ have also been recommended in coastal regional water strategies.