Drought Preparedness Plan: Unregulated Systems

GOULBURN VALLEY WATER

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN FOR UNREGULATED RIVER SUPPLY SYSTEMS

MARCH 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

CONTENTS

SUNDAY CREEK WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 9

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 10 1.1 System Operating Rules 13

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 17 2.1 Supply Context 17 2.2 Consumption 17 2.3 Goals 18 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 19 2.5 Reliability of Supply 20

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 22 3.1 Summary of Options 22 3.2 Demand Side Options 22 3.3 Supply Side Options 22

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTIONS 24 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 24 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 24 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 27 4.4 Post-drought Actions 30

MANSFIELD WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 31

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 32

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 34 2.1 Supply Context 34 2.2 Consumption 34 2.3 Goals 35 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 36 2.5 Reliability of Supply 37

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 38 3.1 Summary of Options 38 3.2 Demand Side Options 38 3.3 Supply Side Options 39

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 40 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 40 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 42 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 45 4.4 Post-drought Phase Actions 48

UPPER DELATITE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 49

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 50

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 52 2.1 Supply Context 52 2.2 Consumption 52 2.3 Goals 53 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 54 2.5 Reliability of Supply 54 2

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 56 3.1 Summary of Options 56 3.2 Demand Side Options 56 3.3 Supply Side Options 56

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 58 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 58 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 60 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 62 4.4 Post-drought Phase Actions 64

EUROA AND VIOLET TOWN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 65

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 66

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 68 2.1 Supply Context 68 2.2 Consumption 68 2.3 Goals 69 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 70 2.5 Reliability of Supply 71

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 72 3.1 Summary of Options 72 3.2 Demand Side Options 72 3.3 Supply Side Options 72

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 74 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 74 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 76 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 78 4.4 Post-Drought Actions 81

STRATHBOGIE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 82

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 83

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 84 2.1 Supply Context 84 2.2 Consumption 84 2.3 Goals 85 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 86 2.5 Reliability of Supply 86

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 88 3.1 Summary of Options 88 3.2 Demand Side Options 88 3.3 Supply Side Options 88

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 90 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 90 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 91 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 93 4.4 Post-Drought Actions 95

LONGWOOD WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 96

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 97 3

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 98 2.1 Supply Context 98 2.2 Consumption 98 2.3 Goals 99 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 100 2.5 Reliability of Supply 101

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 102 3.1 Summary of Options 102 3.2 Demand Side Options 102

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 104 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 104 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 106 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 108 4.4 Post-drought Actions 111

MARYSVILLE-BUXTON WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 112

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 113

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 114 2.1 Supply Context 114 2.2 Consumption 114 2.3 Goals 115 2.4 Review of Past drought Experience 116 2.5 Reliability of Supply 116

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 118 3.1 Summary of Options 118 3.2 Demand Side Options 118 3.3 Supply Side Options 118

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 121 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 121 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 123 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 126 4.4 Post-drought Actions 129

PYALONG WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 130

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 131

2 OVERALL FRAMWORK 133 2.1 Supply Context 133 2.2 Consumption 133 2.3 Goals 134 2.4 Review of Past drought Experience 135 2.5 Reliability of Supply 136 2.6 Water Quality 136

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 137 3.1 Summary of Options 137 3.2 Demand Side Options 137 3.3 Supply Side Options 137

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 139 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 139 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 140 4

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

4.3 Drought Phase Actions 143 4.4 Post-drought Actions 146

WOODS POINT WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 147

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 148

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 151 2.1 Supply Context 151 2.2 Consumption 151 2.3 Goals 152 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 153 2.5 Reliability of Supply 153

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 155 3.1 Summary of Options 155 3.2 Demand Side Options 155 3.3 Supply Side Options 156

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 157 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 157 4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 158 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 161 4.4 Post-drought Actions 164

YEA WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM 165

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION 166

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK 167 2.1 Supply Context 167 2.2 Consumption 167 2.3 Goals 168 2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience 169 2.5 Reliability of Supply 169

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS 171 3.1 Summary of Options 171 3.2 Demand Side Options 171 3.3 Supply Side Options 171

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN 173 4.1 Drought Response Triggers 173 4.2 Pre-Drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring 174 4.3 Drought Phase Actions 177 4.4 Post-Drought Actions 180

REFERENCES 181

Appendix A – Water Restriction By-Law 512 182

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

INTRODUCTION

This document contains the Drought Preparedness Plan (incorporating the Drought Response Plan in Section 5.3) for the unregulated water supply system managed by Goulburn Valley Water, which describes how the corporation will prepare for and manage its systems during an extreme dry period or extreme water quality event. This DPP is based on information available in early 2017.

The purpose of a Drought Preparedness Plan is to provide a ready reference for Goulburn Valley Region Water Corporation to use for operational guidance.

The Drought Preparedness Plan (DPP) details the actions required to prepare for, respond to and learn from periods of water shortage. The broad purpose of a Drought Preparedness Plan is to ensure that the Water Corporation develop its preparedness strategy to meet the agreed levels of service through an adaptive management framework. This framework comprises a number of inter-related long and short term processes; ensures that the community is informed and prepared about impending water shortage periods and GVW has a timely and effective short-term response to the occurrence of water shortage, with the aim of minimising the impacts (social, economic, and environmental) of such shortages. The Plan was prepared in accordance with current State Government guidelines for preparing Urban Water Strategies, including Drought Preparedness Plans (DELWP, 2017). It supersedes the previous manuals.

DPPs have been prepared for each of the water supply systems as listed in Table 1. A map showing the location of towns can be found in Figure 1.

Table 1 GVW’s Water Supply Systems

Towns supplied Source of water

Broadford, Kilmore, Wandong, Heathcote Sunday Creek, Goulburn River Junction, Waterford Park Euroa, Violet Town Sevens Creek, Mountain Hut Ck Strathbogie Sevens Creek Goulburn system Goulburn River Katunga Groundwater Longwood Nine Mile Ck Mansfield Delatite River Marysville, Buxton Steavenson River Merrijig and Sawmill Settlement Delatite River Murray system River Murray Pyalong Mollison Ck Woods Point Brewery Ck, Goulburn River Yea Yea River

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

The DPP is a dynamic document which is refined as more information becomes available. It is therefore important to regularly revise and update the DPP. In the event of a drought, procedures are set out for reviewing the documents and updating them based on actual drought experience.

Each section of this document considers an individual supply system and includes a supply system description. Sections 2 and 3 of each DPP provides a brief description of the basis on which the action plan for coping with drought has been developed. Section 4 of the DPPs details the action plan by setting out the various steps Goulburn Valley Water (GVW) will take to respond to a drought or extreme water quality event.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Unregulated River Supply Systems Drought Preparedness and Response Plan

Figure 1 Locality plan of towns within the Goulburn Valley Water district

SUNDAY CREEK WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The Sunday Creek system includes supply to Broadford, Kilmore, Wandong, Heathcote Junction and Waterford Park. The sources of supply are from diversion weirs on Hazel and Harpers Creek, from Sunday Creek Reservoir and from a pipeline connecting to the Goulburn River at Seymour. Figure 2 shows a schematic of the Sunday Creek system.

Raw water for Broadford is diverted from the 1,650 ML capacity Sunday Creek Reservoir. Raw water gravitates 20 km via a 300/250 mm pipeline to the 100 ML Broadford No. 3 Reservoir located immediately upstream of the Broadford Water Treatment Plant (WTP). Raw water from Broadford No. 3 Reservoir gravitates to the Broadford WTP at a maximum rate of 8 ML/d.

Raw water for Kilmore is sourced from Sunday Creek Reservoir and two tributary streams, Hazel and Harpers Creeks. Raw water from the Sunday Creek Reservoir outlet pipeline is pumped at a rate of 13 ML/d to the 110 ML capacity Hollowback Reservoir. Raw water diverted from the weirs constructed at Hazel and Harpers Creeks gravitates into Hollowback Reservoir at a maximum rate of 4.3 ML/d and then gravitates 3.8 km to the Kilmore WTP. Due to constraints of the pipeline, the maximum transfer rate is currently 7ML/d.

A pump station and supply pipeline from the Goulburn River at Tallarook was commissioned in September 2009. The pump station and pipeline discharges raw water into the Broadford No. 3 Reservoir and has a capacity of 12 ML/day. The capacity of the Broadford WTP is reduced from 6 ML/d to 3 ML/d when treating water which is sourced from the Goulburn River.

A drought contingency pump station has also been installed at the Broadford No. 3 Reservoir. This pump station can transfer 3 ML/d to Sunday Creek Reservoir. While originally constructed as a drought contingency measure, it is envisaged that the Kilmore system will make greater use of the Goulburn supply in the future as demand increases.

A schematic plan of the Sunday Creek supply system is illustrated in Figure 2 and a locality plan is shown in Figure 3.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 2 Sunday Creek Water Supply System

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 3 Sunday Creek Locality Plan

Towns in this supply system

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1.1 System Operating Rules

Provisional operating rules developed for the Broadford-Kilmore system for the WSDS 2011-2060 (GHD, 2012) have been updated for the development of the UWS 2016-2065 (GHD, 2017a) to reflect the increasing system demand. The development of the provisional operating rules largely relied upon the continued use of existing infrastructure. The provisional operating rules were established to achieve the following objectives (GHD, 2012):

 Provide a reliability of supply which is comparable with other towns which source water from bulk entitlements in the Goulburn System. In the short to medium term, this means that restrictions will not be required more frequently than 1 in 100 years;  Sunday Creek Reservoir never empties;  The use of local resources is maximised; and  Goulburn water is used as a secondary supply, where possible.

As part of the development of the UWS 2016-2065 (GHD, 2017a), the operating rules were updated to achieve the same objectives, and are summarised in

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 4 and Table 2. The rules utilise two trigger curves which define three operating zones and modes as follows:

 Mode 1 (Zone 1) – Utilisation of local resources ;  Mode 2 (Zone 2) – Use of local resources supplemented with Goulburn water to prevent high drawdown of Sunday Creek Reservoir; and  Mode 3 (Zone 3) – Maximum use of Goulburn resource within current infrastructure constraints.

The shape of Trigger Curve No 1 (refer Table 3) represents the drawdown profile for the operating rules in Mode 2 (Zone 2), assuming average inflows and peak year demands. The position of Trigger Curve No 1 has been set to minimise the potential need to implement Mode 3 (Zone 3).

The shape of Trigger Curve No 2 (refer Table 3) represents the drawdown profile for the operating rules in Mode 3 (Zone 3), assuming lowest historical inflow (2002) and peak year demands. The position of Trigger Curve No 2 has been set to ensure the lowest storage volume is 350 ML, which is equal to the dead storage volume (95 ML) plus six months of Stage 4 demand in Kilmore (only).

In adopting this mode of operation, it is accepted that:

 There will be periods where the system will be almost fully reliant on the Goulburn System, and  Summer pumping at approximately 90 ML/m is vital to minimise periods of full reliance on the Goulburn system. This monthly pumping rate is based is based on the full capacity of the current drought relief pump station of 3ML/d.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 4 Sunday Creek Operating Modes

Within each operating mode the use of different supply sources is specified to allow the most efficient use of existing infrastructure and available water. The operating mode supply source configurations are displayed in Table 2.

Table 2 Action Plan for each operating mode

Supply Source Operating Mode 1 Operating Mode 2 Operating Mode 3 (Zone 1) (Zone 2) (Zone 3)

Hollowback Maximise use, supply to Maximise use, supply to Kilmore Maximise use, supply to Reservoir Kilmore Kilmore

Sunday Creek Supply all remaining demand Summer (Oct –April) Supply balance of Kilmore Reservoir from Sunday Creek Reservoir Supply balance of Kilmore demand demand from Sunday Creek from Sunday Creek Reservoir Reservoir

Winter (May –Sept) Supply all remaining demand from Sunday Creek Reservoir.

Goulburn River Not required Summer (Oct –April) Supply all Broadford Supply all Broadford demand demand Pump 90 ML/m to Sunday Creek Pump 90 ML/m to Sunday Reservoir Creek Reservoir Winter (May –Sept)

Not required

The performance of the system using these operating curves is shown in Figure 5, using 2015/16 demands (1,571 ML/a) and current climate baseline streamflows. The first plot shows a time-series of storage levels in Sunday Creek Reservoir illustrating the relative frequency in which each mode would be activated. The second plot shows the annual

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

distribution of the source of supply. Note that the ‘SUNDAY CK RES’ diversion represents Sunday Creek Reservoir outflows less Goulburn Inflows.

Table 3 Sunday Creek Operating Mode Triggers Month Trigger 1 Trigger 2 July 1437 431 August 1536 493 September 1550 514 October 1564 547 November 1525 525 December 1463 479 January 1354 419 February 1284 370 March 1242 357 April 1224 354 May 1170 379 June 1183 482

Figure 5 Storage behaviour with updated operating rules for the Broadford-Kilmore system

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Broadford, Kilmore and Wallan) Conversion and Augmentation Order 2003. The annual volume which can be diverted is 2,875 ML with a maximum of 22,380 ML in any ten year period at a rate not exceeding a total of 4.3 ML/day from the Hazel and Harpers Creek diversion points and 16.3 ML/day from the Sunday Creek Reservoir. Diversion from Sunday Creek Reservoir is subject to a minimum passing flow of 4.0 ML/d between December and May and 5.0 ML/d between June and November. If inflows into Sunday Creek Reservoir are less than these minimum passing flows, then the minimum passing flow shall be equal to the natural flow.

A new pump station and supply pipeline from the Goulburn River at Tallarook was commissioned in September 2009. The new pump station and pipeline discharges raw water into the Broadford No. 3 Reservoir and has a capacity of 12 ML/day. The capacity of the Broadford water treatment plant is reduced from 6 ML/d to 3 ML/d when treating water which is sourced from the Goulburn River.

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water from the Goulburn River is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Seymour) Conversion Amendment Order 2008. The annual volume which can be diverted from the Goulburn River near Tallarook to supply Seymour and the Sunday Creek system is 5,340 ML at a rate not exceeding 30.0 ML/d.

The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk- entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes recorded by GVW for the system since 2006/07 are shown in Table 4. Note that three years of consumption (2006/07, 2007/08 and 2009/10) were restricted. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 4 Sunday Creek System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes (ML) Year Annual Consumption (ML) Broadford, Kilmore, Wandong, Total Waterford Park Heathcote Junction 2006/07 520 695 1,215 2007/08 153 302 455 2008/09 517 546 1,063 2009/10 622 646 1,268 2010/11 512 680 1,193 2011/12 592 662 1,254 2012/13 674 891 1,565 2013/14 632 956 1,588 2014/15 N/A N/A 1,770 2015/16 N/A N/A 1,724 17

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 2,135 ML/yr for the total system. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 5. The unrestrictable diversion of 1,080 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion. Table 5 also includes the demand excluding Broadford, which is subsequently used to derive drought response triggers for Sunday Creek Reservoir when Broadford is being supplied from the Goulburn River.

Table 5 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Demand Restrictable Demand Average Monthly Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) (ML/mth) Total Kilmore, Total Kilmore, Total Kilmore, System Heathcote System Heathcote System Heathcote Junction Junction Junction and and and Wandong Wandong Wandong July 103 67 90 58 13 8 August 118 76 90 58 28 18 September 119 77 90 58 29 19 October 166 107 90 58 76 49 November 206 133 90 58 116 75 December 285 184 90 58 195 126 January 299 193 90 58 209 135 February 263 170 90 58 173 112 March 195 126 90 58 105 68 April 174 113 90 58 84 55 May 110 71 90 58 20 13 June 97 63 90 58 7 4 TOTAL 2,135 ML/yr 1,381 ML/yr 1,080 ML/yr 699 ML/yr 1,055 ML/yr 682 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

The security of supply objectives of Goulburn Valley Water are that minor water restrictions (Stage 1 or 2) do not occur more frequently than 1 year in 10 on average, with more severe restrictions (Stage 3 or 4) occurring no more frequently than 1 year in 20.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

2002-2003

Stage 5 (of 10 stage) restrictions were imposed on the Sunday Creek system on the 15th August 2002 and were increased to Stage 7 on the 26th September 2002, Stage 9 on the 1st November 2002 and Stage 10 on the 29th March 2003. Restrictions were eased to Stage 9 on 22nd May 2003.

2003-2004

Sunday Creek experienced Stage 9 (of 10 stage) restrictions (continuing from 2002- 2003 period) until restrictions were eased to Stage 2 (of 4 stages) on the 17th December 2003 which continued to the 30th June 2004.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2004-2005

Stage 3 (of 4 stage) restrictions were imposed on the Sunday Creek system on the 1st July 2004 which were eased to Stage 2 on 1st December 2004 and Stage 1 on 2nd June 2005.

2005-2006

Sunday Creek system remained under Stage 1 restrictions for the entire year (1st July 2005 to 30th June 2006).

2006-2017

This period saw a succession of dry years, including the extremely dry year of 2006/07. Stage 1 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 1 July 2006 and were increased to Stage 2 on 1 November 2006, Stage 3 on 15 December 2006 and Stage 4 on 1 February 2007. Restrictions were eased to Stage 3 on 16 May 2007 and then to Stage 1 for Broadford on 19 December 2008 and Stage 2 for Kilmore on 9 January 2009. Restrictions to Kilmore were then increased to Stage 4 on 8 February 2009 due to the 2009 bushfires and then reduced to Stage 1 on 20 March 2009. Permanent Water Saving Rules were introduced in November 2009 and are still currently in effect.

Water was carted into the supply system from other sources. The volume carted included 355 ML carted from Seymour to Broadford from April 2007 to August 2008 and 464 ML transferred from the Yarra Valley Water system to Kilmore from December 2007 to December 2008. The pipeline from the Goulburn River to Broadford did not start pumping water until early 2009.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

The long-term annual reliability of supply for the Sunday Creek system was assessed using the Sunday Creek REALM Model from January 1893 to December 2015 (GHD, 2017b). The reliability of supply was assessed for the eight scenarios utilised in the Urban Water Strategy, namely under current climate baseline conditions, step climate change conditions and climate change at 2040 and 2065 (low, medium and high). Reliability of supply was 99.2% under historic conditions, which meets GVW’s level of service objectives. The step climate change scenario reliability was estimated to be 96.0%, whilst the 2065 medium climate change scenario reliability was estimated as 96.0%.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

GVW have contingency plans for non-drought related water shortage. These include but not limited to the followings:  Blue Green Algae Risk Management Plan;  Emergency Response to Aesthetic Issues Process;  Emergency Response to Chemicals and Toxins Process;  Emergency Response to Pathogens Process

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

Priority open spaces are currently determined with councils along with relevant water supply opportunities in terms of potable reduction. Refer to Section 2.2 and 6 in GVW Urban Water Strategy for details.

2.8 Exemptions

Exemptions of water users under restrictions can be considered and given to critical customers (e.g. industrial customers, councils and health organisations) based on reasonable water uses to maintain daily operations. This is normally considered on a case by case basis.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Broadford/Kilmore water supply system are:

Demand Side Options  Encourage water conservation (voluntary restrictions) as requested in an appropriate advertising campaign;  Staged restrictions on water use in accordance with By-Law 512 (Appendix A);  Water Efficiency Objectives;

Supply Side Options  Transfer of entitlement from the Goulburn water supply system;  Increased use of pumping from Goulburn system to Sunday Creek Reservoir;  Use of groundwater

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 6. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 3 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 6 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

3.3 Supply Side Options

Transfer of Goulburn River Water Sourcing water from the Goulburn River is an integral part of the Sunday Creek System in order to maintain GVW reliability of supply targets. Operating rules were developed as part of the preparation of GVW's 2012 WSDS, which defined the use of supply from the Goulburn River (refer to Section 1.1). These rules are designed to mitigate the impacts of low flow periods in Sunday Creek; however, the opportunity remains to 22

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

increase the use of the Goulburn River supply during periods of water shortage. The rules were updated as part of the preparation of GVW’s 2017 UWS. Regular review and refinement of the operating rules will be required as more operational experience is obtained.

Use of Groundwater Groundwater could be available from some aquifers in the Sunday Creek system, and it could be used to supplement potable supplies. Treatment to a potable standard could also be investigated. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c).

Carting of Water Carting of water is considered redundant for this supply system now that it has been connected to the Goulburn River. The capacity of the pipe from the Goulburn River of 12 ML/d is sufficient to be able to meet restricted demands for the whole of the Sunday Creek supply system in the event of a drought.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in Sunday Creek dropped below the minimum passing flow, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to divert more than the allowable diversion under their bulk entitlement to maintain essential supply to the town. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options above. This option is regarded as a last resort when other demand reduction or supply enhancement options are unviable.

Guidelines for the Temporary Qualification of Rights to Surface Water are available from the DELWP website: http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/water/governing-water- resources/water-entitlements-and-trade/qualification-of-rights-to-water

A Ministerial qualification of rights was granted in 2006/07 to suspend passing flows until Sunday Creek Reservoir refilled.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTIONS

System monitoring is undertaken to assess the status of the supply system according to one of the following three operational modes: 1. Pre-drought Phase – General Monitoring 2. Drought Phase 3. Post Drought Phase

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Drought Response Triggers are now aligned with Goulburn Valley Water’s regulated Goulburn System. This has come about because the Sunday Creek Water Supply System receives water from the Goulburn System in periods of low inflow to Sunday Creek Reservoir.

The use of the Goulburn resource in Sunday Creek is dictated by the operating modes specified in Section 1.1.

The bulk entitlement for Sunday Creek (2,875 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 2,135 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

The Annual Water Outlook is a tool for monitoring the water situation and the possible necessity for implementation of restrictions. The Annual Water Outlook can also be used to communicate with water customers the reasoning for impending restriction implementation.

Prior to the next drought, Goulburn Valley water needs to instigate a number of actions to ensure it is able to respond effectively and in a timely manner. This section outlines these pre-drought actions.

Annually

1) Establish monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of diversion volumes, storage volumes, and supply on a daily, monthly and annual basis; and 24

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 Obtaining streamflow information on the behaviour of Sunday Creek upstream of the reservoir; and

 Obtaining streamflow information for Sunday Creek at Mt Disappointment (gauge 405288) and Westcott Creek at Mt. Disappointment (gauge 405287);

2) Check the seasonal climate outlook produced by the Bureau of Meteorology, which provides a three month forecast of the likelihood of exceeding median rainfall conditions (http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/rainfall/summary);

3) Update the Annual Water Outlook with relevant streamflow and climatic data, including information from the Bureau of Meteorology climatic forecasts. Comments and conclusions on the status of the system and areas of uncertainties should be updated to advise on the likelihood of restrictions needing to be applied in the short term.

Short to Medium Term

3) Continue monitoring of inflows to the Sunday Creek Reservoir;

4) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:  Pre-drought, and  During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing); and

Long Term

5) Refine operation of the Goulburn River pipeline once the hydrology of the Sunday Creek catchment is better understood.

6) Develop water carting program as a contingency measure if required.

Table 7 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 7 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that total available water 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review cannot be maintained above the Level 1 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, Drought Response Trigger restrictions etc in preparation for prompt printing and distribution, if required. Action 2 Moderate likelihood that total available 3. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use,

water cannot be maintained above the including basis for action. Level 1 Drought Response Trigger 4. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

5. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that available water 6. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for cannot be maintained above the Level 1 restrictions in the future. Drought Response Trigger 7. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs. 8. Consider the temporary water trading options to avoid implementing restrictions. 9. Implement supply from Goulburn River to Broadford as specified in the drought action triggers (Section 3.3).

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4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

The DRP is prepared for responding to the Drought Phase which defines an active drought response period where supply and/or demand side measures are required to maintain supply reliability. The Drought Response Triggers are used to trigger an increase in the severity of the water shortage measure being implemented. Responses during each level of action are summarised in Table 8.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 8 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 10. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 The total system storage The decision on the appropriate stage of falls below the Stage 1 11. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Drought Response Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time particularly (regulated Goulburn 12. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. recent streamflow behaviour. system). 13. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 14. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 The total system storage falls below the Stage 2 15. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details Drought Response Trigger of the restrictions. (regulated Goulburn system) 16. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 17. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 18. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 19. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 The total system storage falls below the Stage 3 20. Continue advertising campaign. Drought Response Trigger 21. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. (regulated Goulburn system) 22. Review need for supplementary supplies, and confirm availability. If necessary take action to purchase or transfer water to increase BE. 23. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 24. Pumping from Broadford No. 3 Reservoir should be initiated at Stage 3 restrictions to prevent moving to Stage 4 if possible. 25. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options. *Note: Restriction rule values have been determined from information available on the effect of stages of restriction on water consumption. Information obtained on the effect of restriction on demand and the short-term climate outlook during a drought should, as far as possible be taken into account in determining further restriction levels.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

26. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 The total system storage Level of restriction is such that falls below the Stage 4 27. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Drought Response Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such (regulated Goulburn system) 28. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of measures needs to be considered in the restrictions. light of the particular circumstances. 29. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 30. Supplement BE by purchases and/or transfers to extent necessary to prevent annual BE being exceeded. 31. Continue pumping from Broadford No.3 Reservoir to Sunday Creek Reservoir if possible. 32. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 Total system storage falls Level of restriction is such that only. below the emergency consideration of supply enhancement restriction rule value (buffer 33. Implement emergency measures such as transfer or purchase of additional measures is required. Action on such storage) water allocation or water carting. measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Sunday Creek Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.4 Post-drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 9.

Table 9 Post-drought Action

Action Assessment Procedure Review Objectives The appropriateness and relevance of the Objectives should be checked and revised, if needed. Evaluation of Trigger The effectiveness of the actions taken at each trigger level should be reviewed and Levels consideration given to whether the actions were appropriate at the time. The effect of restrictions on water consumption should be evaluated. Lead times for actions should also be reviewed, as well as the ability to source additional water. Assessment of The reaction of the community should be reviewed and the effectiveness of the media Impacts in the implementation of the Plan assessed. Impact on Staff Consideration should be given to determining how well the staff were able to cope in implementing the Plan and whether there were any deficiencies in the Plan from the viewpoint of the staff. Revision of Plan Given the information deduced as a result of the above actions, the Plan should be revised.

MANSFIELD WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The town of Mansfield is supplied from the Delatite River downstream of Stony Creek, where water is diverted into a series of off-stream storages shown in Figure 6. The diversion weir directs water into a 450 mm diameter and twin 226 mm diameter water pipes for delivery to a 45 ML water storage basin (No. 3 Reservoir) adjacent to the township. The twin service mains have the capacity to deliver approximately 4.4 ML/d to the storage when river flows are at or above 32.2 ML/d. However due to the poor condition of the pipeline, diversion rates were previously limited to 3.1 ML/d. GVW has recently upgraded a section of the twin pipelines with a 450 mm diameter pipeline, allowing 3.5 ML/d to be transferred.

Two off-stream storages are located along the pipeline route. These include the 180 ML Ritchie Reservoir, constructed in 1986, and the 356 ML Ritchie Reservoir No. 2, completed in 2007/08. Ritchie Reservoir is capable of transferring water to the No. 3 Reservoir at a rate of 3.5 ML/d. The capacity of the inlet/outlet pipeline to Ritchie Reservoir No. 2 is 7.5 ML/day, which is greater than the capacity of the raw water pipeline which supplies it. From the 45 ML storage, water is pumped through a water treatment plant and into a 3 ML clear water storage. Water then gravitates or is pumped to the urban reticulation network. The location of Mansfield in relation to the other Goulburn Valley towns is displayed in Figure 7.

Figure 6 Mansfield Water Supply System

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 7 Mansfield Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Mansfield) Conversion Order 1995. The volume which can be diverted over any consecutive two year period is 2,600 ML. The minimum passing flow at Tonga Bridge (stream flow monitoring site downstream of GVW’s diversion point) is 18 ML/d and GVW’s allowable diversion rate varies up to a maximum of 4.4 ML/d as per the bulk entitlement passing flow rules summarised in Table 10. The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk-entitlements).

Table 10 Mansfield Passing Flow Rules

Flow at Tonga Bridge1 Maximum Diversion Volume Minimum Passing Flow (F) (ML/day) (ML/day) 0 – 18 ML/day 0 F 18 – 20.2 ML/day F - 18 18 20.2 – 30 ML/day 2.2 F – 2.2 30 – 32.2 ML/day 2.2 + (F – 30) 27.8 > 32.2 ML/day 4.4 F – 4.4 1 F is the flow measured at the Tonga Bridge gauging station, which is downstream of the diversion point.

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes recorded since 2006/07 are listed in Table 11. Note that three years of consumption (2006/07, 2007/08 and 2009/10) were restricted. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b) which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 11 Delatite System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes (ML) Annual Year Consumption (ML) 2006/07 445 2007/08 591 2008/09 547 2009/10 580 2010/11 456 2011/12 295 2012/13 576 2013/14 943 2014/15 463 2015/16 856

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 12. The unrestrictable diversion of 435 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

Table 12 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 42 36 6 August 46 36 10 September 47 36 11 October 64 36 27 November 77 36 41 December 107 36 70 January 111 36 75 February 98 36 62 March 74 36 38 April 67 36 31 May 45 36 8 June 40 36 3 TOTAL 817 ML/yr 435 ML/yr 382 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

1982-1983

In late December 1982 the (then) Mansfield Waterworks Trust introduced Stage 1 of an 8 Stage Water Restrictions By-law even though the water level remained high in the town's service basin. These restrictions were imposed at the request of the Minister for Water Supply as part of a state wide water saving initiative. In mid February the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SR&WSC) imposed a ban on diversions from the river for irrigation purposes. The restrictions were lifted in April 1983.

1997-1998

Stage 5 restrictions (from a 10 Stage Restriction By-law) were introduced on the 4 February 1998. The restrictions were removed on the 22 April 1998.

2002-2003

Stage 5 restrictions (from a 10 Stage Restriction By-law) were introduced on the 23 February 2003. These followed the earlier introduction of Stage 2 restrictions in November 2002 for all towns in Goulburn Valley Water’s area as a ‘compulsory water conservation measure’. The restrictions were lifted on 18 May 2003.

2006-2009

This period saw a succession of dry years, including the extremely dry year of 2006/07. Stage 2 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 1 March 2006 and were lifted on 26 April 2006. Stage 2 restrictions were re-implemented on 25 October 2006 and then increased to Stage 4 on 6 December 2006. Restrictions were eased to Stage 3 on 16 May

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2007, then to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and to Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions remained in place until November 2009. GVW received a Ministerial qualification of rights to reduce passing flows at Mansfield over the period from 4 December 2006 to 16 May 2007.

2009-2017

Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

The long-term annual reliability of supply for the Mansfield system was assessed using the Delatite REALM Model from July 1947 to December 2015 (GHD, 2017b). The reliability of supply was assessed for the eight scenarios utilised in the Urban Water Strategy, namely under current climate baseline conditions, step climate change conditions and climate change at 2040 and 2065 (low, medium and high). Reliability of supply was 97% under current climate baseline conditions, which meets GVW’s level of service objectives. Under step climate change conditions and 2065 medium climate change conditions, the reliability remained at 97%, which meets GVW’s level of service objective.

Reliability of supply estimates are based on a water resource model for the whole of the Delatite River. The accuracy of this model has improved with the collection of streamflow data at Carters Road, which is located upstream of GVW’s urban offtake to the Upper Delatite system. This model could be further improved by collecting additional streamflow data at this site at very low flows.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

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3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Mansfield water supply system are:

Supply Side Options  Carting of water;  Groundwater; and  Ministerial qualification of rights.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 13. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 12 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 13 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

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3.3 Supply Side Options

Carting of Water A staged plan for carting water to Mansfield in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart treated water from Alexandra, or raw water from the Goulburn River, depending on the availability of water from these supply sources. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 41 ML/mth (1349 kL/d) would require around 50 tankers per day of 27 kL capacity. It would only be practical to meet a portion of this level of demand through water carting. Delivering 60 litres/capita/day, which is regarded as a minimum to meet basic human needs, to the 3,034 residents of Mansfield (DPCD, 2009) would require around seven 27 kL tankers per day.

If water carting is required, forward planning is needed to ensure that suitable vehicles can be secured, that water can physically be pumped into the supply system from the water truck, and that water is available from the designated supply source. The lead time for water carting will vary according to whether GVW has carters already employed in other supply systems, but could be as long as several weeks.

It should also be noted that Mansfield may be a source of water carted to the Upper Delatite supply system during extreme droughts. Further information about any water carting requirements for the Upper Delatite system can be obtained from GVW’s DPP for the Upper Delatite system.

Groundwater Groundwater supply may be an option for short-term supply during periods of low river flow. Investigating groundwater options would firstly involve examining any past studies and identifying any existing groundwater bores in the region to determine likely bore yields. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits that applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c).

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in the Delatite River drop below 18 ML/d at Tonga Bridge, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to continue diverting to maintain essential supply to Mansfield. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options above. This option is regarded as a last resort when other demand reduction or supply enhancement options are unviable. The lead time to implement this option will vary according to the extent to which third parties and the environment are likely to be affected by the qualification.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Triggers for action during drought are based on the combined volume in Ritchie Reservoir, Ritchie No. 2 Reservoir and Mansfield No. 3 Reservoir and are contained in Table 14. These triggers assume that once the Stage 1 trigger is reached, approximately 4 months of restricted supply will be available in storage assuming no diversions to the supply system from the Delatite River. If diversions occur, then this would lengthen the time between each stage of restriction. A buffer storage of 140 ML has been assumed in designing these triggers, which is the trigger for emergency measures. This buffer storage allows for uncertainties in supply system behaviour as well as the possibility of having to cart water to the Upper Delatite supply system in extreme drought. It is approximately equal to 3 months of restricted (Stage 4) supply plus an allowance for evaporation.

Table 14 Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers Action to be taken if Remaining Storage (ML) is less than the Value indicated at the start of month Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 336 274 224 180 August 360 290 231 182 September 391 307 241 185 October 438 334 254 192 November 473 356 262 192 December 495 378 276 195 January 474 367 276 195 February 424 342 263 194 March 372 306 248 187 April 341 286 234 187 May 310 263 219 176 June 318 266 221 180

The process involves monitoring the total system storage at least monthly and plotting on the graph given in Figure 8. The position of the volume in storage in relation to the restriction rule curves will indicate whether or not restrictions should be introduced, and if so at what level. 40

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 8 Mansfield Water Supply Demand Restriction Curve

700

600

Stage 1 Stage 2 500 Stage 3 Stage 4 Capacity 400 Buffer storage

300 Volume in StorageVolume (ML)

200

100

0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Start of Month

The restriction exit triggers are listed in Table 15 and are equal to the restriction rule values plus 8 weeks of restricted demand and net evaporation. Where the exit trigger has been set to 575 ML, it indicates that the storage must be refilled to capacity to avoid having to re-instate restrictions within 8 weeks if no diversion occurs over this period.

Table 15 Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Response Exit Triggers

Month Exit Stage 1 Exit Stage 2 Exit Stage 3 Exit Stage 4 July 492 406 334 273 August 551 443 355 287 September 575 493 384 300 October 575 554 424 320 November 575 575 454 337 December 575 575 465 351 January 575 549 443 340 February 556 486 395 320 March 483 424 354 293 April 446 388 329 277 May 427 363 310 262 June 450 380 318 266

The bulk entitlement for Mansfield (equivalent of 1300 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 610 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought.

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Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Prior to the next drought, Goulburn Valley Water needs to investigate a number of actions to ensure it is able to respond effectively and in a timely manner. This section outlines these pre-drought actions.

Annually

1) Establish monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of diversion volumes, storage volumes, and supply on a daily, monthly and annual basis;

3) Update the Annual Water Outlook with relevant streamflow and climatic data, this includes information from the Bureau of Meteorology climatic forecasts. Comments and conclusions on the status of the system and areas of uncertainties should be updated to advise on the likelihood of restrictions needing to be applied in the short term.

Short to Medium Term

3) Continue monitoring of streamflows at Carters Road during extreme drought conditions (when streamflow at Tonga Bridge is less than ~ 10 ML/d) to improve understanding of the distribution of flow in the Delatite River catchment at low flows;

4) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought, and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing); and

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Long Term

5) Develop water carting program.

6) Investigate the potential to access groundwater.

Table 16 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken .

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 16 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

5. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

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4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

The DRP is prepared for responding to the Drought Phase which an active drought response period where supply and/or demand side measures are required to maintain supply reliability. The Drought Response Triggers are used to trigger an increase in the severity of the water shortage measure being implemented. Responses during each level of action are summarised in Table 17.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 17 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 9. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 The total system storage The decision on the appropriate stage of falls below the Stage 1 10. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Drought Response Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time particularly the recent observed streamflow behaviour. 11. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 12. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 13. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 The total system storage falls below the Stage 2 14. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details Drought Response Trigger of the restrictions. 15. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 16. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 17. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 18. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 The total system storage falls below the Stage 3 19. Continue advertising campaign. Drought Response Trigger 20. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 21. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 22. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water carting.

*Note: Restriction rule values have been determined from information available on the effect of stages of restriction on water consumption. Information obtained on the effect of restriction on demand and the short-term climate outlook during a drought should, as far as possible be taken into account in determining further restriction levels.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Mansfield Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

23. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 The total system storage Level of restriction is such that falls below the Stage 4 24. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Drought Response Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 25. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 26. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 27. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 28. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 Total system storage falls Level of restriction is such that only. below the emergency consideration of supply enhancement restriction rule value (buffer 29. Implement emergency measures such as water carting. measures is required. Action on such storage) measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

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4.4 Post-drought Phase Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 18.

Table 18 Post-drought Action

UPPER DELATITE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The townships of Sawmill Settlement and Merrijig are supplied from the Upper Delatite water supply system. The Upper Delatite system obtains water by pumping from the Delatite River at Sawmill Settlement. The water is pumped from the river, chlorinated, and stored in a 0.5 ML tank prior to being delivered by gravity to consumers.

A schematic of the Upper Delatite supply system is shown in Figure 9 and a locality plan is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 9 Upper Delatite Supply System

50 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 10 Merrijig and Sawmill Settlement Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

51 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Upper Delatite) Conversion Order 1995. The annual volume which can be diverted is 235 ML. Under the order, there is a passing flow requirement of 5.0 ML/d at the diversion point. When stream flows are between 5.0 ML/day and 7.8 ML/day, GVW can divert the portion of the flow that is above 5.0 ML/day. When flow is above 7.8 ML/d GVW is entitled to divert a maximum of 2.8 ML/day. The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk-entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes recorded by GVW since 2006/07 are listed in Table 19. Note that two years of consumption (2006/07 and 2007/08) were restricted. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b) which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 19 Annual Raw Water Consumption

Annual Consumption Year (ML) 2006/07 70 2007/08 63 2008/09 72 2009/10 62 2010/11 63 2011/12 52 2012/13 91 2013/14 64 2014/15 73 2015/16 96

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 126 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 20. The unrestrictable diversion of 80 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

52 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 20 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 9.9 6.6 3.2 August 10.1 6.6 3.4 September 7.2 6.6 0.5 October 7.7 6.6 1.1 November 10.0 6.6 3.3 December 10.0 6.6 3.3 January 13.7 6.6 7.1 February 11.4 6.6 4.7 March 14.1 6.6 7.4 April 11.5 6.6 4.8 May 11.6 6.6 5.0 June 8.6 6.6 1.9 TOTAL 126 ML/yr 80 ML/yr 46 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

53 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

On the 1st November 2002 Stage 2 restrictions of the then 10 stage restriction By-law were implemented in every town in the Goulburn Valley Water Region. The restrictions were imposed to encourage responsible garden watering during a severe drought and they received widespread community support. These restrictions were lifted on the 21st May 2003.

Stage 4 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 13 December 2006. These were decreased to Stage 3 restrictions on 16 May 2007, Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

High level restrictions were implemented in 2006/2007 to provide parity with restriction levels at Mansfield. The introduction of high level restrictions at this time was supported by the community. GVW operators taking spot gauge readings at the diversion point during this period found that stream flows remained above the diversion limit of 5 ML/d.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

The townships of Merrijig and Sawmill Settlement are supplied from the Delatite River. The supply system has limited offstream storage which means that streamflow needs to be sustained at a minimum threshold to allow diversions to continue. The reliability of the system is therefore related to the frequency and duration that flows fall below the flow threshold. Analysis has shown that the frequency and potential shortfalls is of the order of 1 in 20 years, with a duration of several weeks.

The current reliability of supply is estimated to be well above GVW’s target level of service, however there is a high degree of uncertainty about low flow behaviour because no continuous monitoring data has been collected at very low flows. This estimate of reliability is potentially an underestimate based on operator experience in 2006/07.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

GVW have contingency plans for non-drought related water shortage. These include but not limited to the followings: 54 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 Blue Green Algae Risk Management Plan;  Emergency Response to Aesthetic Issues Process;  Emergency Response to Chemicals and Toxins Process;  Emergency Response to Pathogens Process

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

55 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Upper Delatite water supply system are:

3.1 Summary of Options

Demand Side Options  Advertising campaign to encourage water conservation (voluntary restrictions);  Staged restrictions on water use in accordance with By-Law 512 (Appendix A);  Water Efficiency Objectives;

Supply Side Options  Use of reclaimed water;  Water carting;  Groundwater; and  Ministerial qualification of rights.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 21. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 20 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 21 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

3.3 Supply Side Options

Water Cartage A staged plan for carting water to Upper Delatite in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart treated water from Mansfield or Alexandra, or raw water from the Goulburn River, depending on the availability of water from these supply sources. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 4.2 ML/mth (138 kL/d) would require around 5 tankers 56 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

per day of 27 kL capacity. Delivering 60 litres/capita/day, which is regarded as a minimum to meet basic human needs, to the 140 permanent residents (excluding visitors) of Sawmill Settlement (DPCD, 2009) would require around one 27 kL tanker every 3-4 days. The town of Merrijig was too small to be reported separately in Census population data. Any water carting to meet basic human needs would need to include an allowance for supply to residents at Merrijig as well.

Reclaimed Water Reclaimed water from the Upper Delatite wastewater treatment could possibly be used for certain activities not requiring potable water. This could include roadworks. EPA approval is required for these applications. Lead times would need to be further investigated for this option. The amount of existing potable water usage that could be substituted for reclaimed water is minimal, hence this supply enhancement option would be of limited benefit during drought.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in the Delatite River upstream of the offtake drop below 5.0 ML/d, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to divert some of the flow to maintain essential supply to the town. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options are unviable. The lead time to implement this option will vary according to the extent to which third parties and the environment are likely to be affected by the qualification.

57 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

It is not considered practical to use the volume in storage to trigger the introduction of water restrictions, as the system has limited storage capacity. The trigger for water restrictions will be low river flow limiting diversion in an extreme drought.

Initial triggers for action during low flow periods are shown in Table 22 and are based on the recorded (or estimated) flow on Delatite River at Carters Rd. In the absence of gauged data at Carters Rd, streamflows can be estimated using the following relationship:

When Q405214 < 650 ML/d: Q405321 (ML/d) = (-0.001 * Q405214 + 0.9482) * Q405214

When Q405214 > = 650 ML/d: Q405321 (ML/d) = Q405214 * 0.3

Where: Q405321 is the streamflow at gauge 405321 on the Delatite River at Carters Rd; and Q405214 is the streamflow at gauge 405214 on the Delatite River at Tonga Bridge.

It should be noted that there is a high degree of uncertainty in this relationship at very low flows and monitoring upstream of the offtake is preferred during these periods. Monitoring at Carters Road should commence when flows at Tonga Bridge drop below around 10 ML/d, which will roughly correspond to the period when flows at Carters Road are considered to be approaching the minimum passing flow.

The Stage 1 trigger of 10 ML/d in Table 22 is above the streamflow at which GVW’s diversions begin to be restricted, however streamflows are expected to recede quickly, providing little time for GVW to source alternative supplies. It is anticipated based on REALM modelling results that at these low flows, the town of Mansfield is expected to already be on restrictions. To ensure equity between the two systems at times when Mansfield is likely to be supplying the Upper Delatite system, it is proposed to set the triggers for restriction for the Upper Delatite system to be at least the same or more severe than those at Mansfield. When streamflows drop below 5 ML/d, all diversions to the Upper Delatite system cease. Implementing more severe restrictions for the Upper Delatite system at this time will minimise volumes to be carted and hence a decision

58 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

about actual restriction levels should take into account the availability of water trucks, the availability of water and the cost of water carting.

Table 22 Upper Delatite Supply System Drought Response Triggers Action to be taken if 3 day rolling average streamflow is less than the Value indicated at any time 3 day rolling Stage of restriction Approximate 3 day rolling Peak monthly average time until next average demand streamflow stage of allowable (ML/d)* upstream of restriction diversion (ML/d) offtake (ML/d) (days)# > 10 None n/a 2.8 0.4 10 Most severe of 13 2.8 0.4 Stage 1 or Mansfield restriction level 5 Emergency n/a 0.0 0.2 measures *Peak daily and peak weekly demands are likely to be higher than this value #Based on master recession curve – actual behaviour at flows below 10 ML/d likely to vary from this. All estimates are approximate only.

Restrictions for the Upper Delatite system are expected to be lifted more quickly than those at Mansfield, because only a small increase in streamflow is required for the Upper Delatite system to re-commence diverting from the river.

If the flow in the Delatite River upstream of the offtake rises above 30 ML/d, then based on the recession curve behaviour of the stream, the Stage 1 trigger would not be expected to be reached again within 20 days. No restrictions should be lifted until the flow returns to above 30 ML/d. A higher exit trigger with a longer recession curve was considered impractical for this quickly receding stream.

The bulk entitlement for Upper Delatite (235 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 126 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

59 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Annually 1) Establish and review monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of diversion volumes on a daily, monthly and annual basis;

Short to Medium Term

4) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing); and

5) Continue monitoring of streamflows at Carters Road during extreme drought conditions (when streamflow at Tonga Bridge is less than ~ 10 ML/d) to improve understanding of low flow in the Delatite River;

Long Term

6) Review water carting strategy; and

7) Investigate the potential to access groundwater.

Table 23 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken .

60 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 23 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that streamflow falls 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review below the Level 1 Drought Response 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, Trigger restrictions etc in preparation for prompt 3. Monitor estimated streamflows upstream of offtake and introduce printing and distribution, if required. temporary streamflow monitoring arrangements upstream of the offtake when estimated flows approach Stage 1 trigger.

Action 2 Moderate likelihood that streamflow 4. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, including basis for action. falls below the Level 1 Drought Response Trigger 5. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

6. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that streamflow falls 7. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for below the Level 1 Drought Response restrictions in the future. Trigger 8. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs. 9. Investigate emergency supply measures, such as water carting and ensure that an alternative water supply plan has been prepared.

61 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

62 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 24 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 10. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions or the equivalent level of Action 4 The 3 day rolling average The decision on the appropriate stage of restrictions as Mansfield. streamflow falls below the restriction will depend on the Stage 1 Drought Response 11. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details circumstances at the time particularly the Trigger of the restrictions. recent observed streamflow behaviour and availability of water at Mansfield. 12. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 13. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required.

14. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 15. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 5 The 3 day rolling average Level of restriction is such that only. streamflow falls below the consideration of supply enhancement emergency restriction rule 16. Implement emergency measures such as water carting. measures is required. Action on such value measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

63 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Upper Delatite Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.4 Post-drought Phase Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 25.

Table 25 Post-drought Action

Action Assessment Procedure Review Objectives The appropriateness and relevance of the Objectives should be checked and revised, if needed. Evaluation of The effectiveness of the actions taken at each trigger level should be reviewed and Trigger Levels consideration given to whether the actions were appropriate at the time. The effect of restrictions on water consumption should be evaluated. Lead times for actions should also be reviewed, as well as the ability to source additional water. Assessment of The reactions of the community should be reviewed and the effectiveness of the media in Impacts the implementation of the Plan assessed. Impact on Staff Consideration should be given to determining how well the staff were able to cope in implementing the Plan and whether there were any deficiencies in the Plan from the viewpoint of the staff. Revision of Plan Given the information deduced as a result of the above actions, the Plan should be revised.

EUROA AND VIOLET TOWN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The Euroa water supply is sourced from Seven Creeks and Mountain Hut Creek. The system headworks comprise Waterhouse Reservoir (195 ML plus 50 ML available November to May) , Mountain Hut Creek Storage (14 ML), Polly McQuinn Reservoir (78 ML), Gooram Diversion Weir (No effective capacity), Abbinga Reservoir (560 ML), and pipelines connecting the offtake on Seven Creeks at Gooram to Mountain Hut Reservoir, and Mountain Hut Reservoir to Euroa.

The Polly McQuinn storage is located on Seven Creeks near Strathbogie several kilometres upstream of Gooram Weir. Water released from the storage is diverted at Gooram Weir. The water from the Gooram diversion weir travels through 11 kilometres of pipe to the Mountain Hut Creek Storage. The capacity of the Gooram diversion pipeline is 3 ML/d. Mountain Hut Creek can supply Euroa / Violet Town at a maximum of 7.5 ML/d.

A transfer pump station is currently located on Seven Creeks which has the ability to divert 3 ML/d directly to Abbinga Reservoir when passing flows permit the operation of this pump station. Gooram Weir water can be transferred via Mountain Hut Reservoir at a rate of 3 ML/d into Abbinga Reservoir.

The WTP utilises conventional clarification and filtration processes. Clearwater storage for the WTP comprises a 2.2 ML tank. Water is gravity fed via the reticulation system to Euroa, and pumped to Violet Town. Two Clear Water Storages each with a capacity of 300 kL exist at Violet Town.

A schematic plan of the Euroa supply system is shown in Figure 11 and a locality plan is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 11 Euroa Supply System

66 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 12 Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

67 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Euroa System) Conversion Order 2001. The annual volume which can be diverted is 1,990 ML, with additional constraints on the volume which can be diverted to Abbinga Reservoir over the winterfill period from May to October. The daily extraction rates and passing flows are different for each of its supply sources, including different passing flows at Gooram Weir based on whether Abbinga Reservoir is being filled or not. The maximum diversion rate is specified in the bulk entitlement as 12 ML/d, which in practice is limited by infrastructure capacity. A higher maximum diversion rate of 20 ML/d exists for water supplied directly to Abbinga Reservoir from Seven Creeks. The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk- entitlements). Table 26 Euroa – Violet Town System Passing Flows

Location Passing Flow Requirement Polly McQuinn’s Reservoir Minimum of 10 ML/d or reservoir inflows Gooram Weir Minimum of 10 ML/d or weir inflows Gooram Weir when supplying Abbinga Reservoir Minimum of 40 ML/d or weir inflows (Winterfill Diversion May-Oct) Abbinga Reservoir supply direct from Seven Creeks Minimum of 40 ML/d or flow upstream of the diversion point Waterhouse Reservoir None Mountain Hut Reservoir None

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes for Euroa-Violet Town recorded since 2006/07 are shown in Table 27. Note that two years (2006/07 and 2007/08) include periods of restriction. Euroa began supplying Violet Town in March 2002 and records of consumption for the two towns have been combined since 2005. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 735 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 28. The unrestrictable diversion of 373 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

68 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 27 Euroa – Violet Town System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes

Year Annual Consumption (ML) 2006/07 581 2007/08 676 2008/09 818 2009/10 697 2010/11 546 2011/12 574 2012/13 748 2013/14 687 2014/15 730 2015/16 842

Table 28 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development

Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 35.9 31.1 4.7 August 40.0 31.1 8.9 September 40.9 31.1 9.8 October 56.8 31.1 25.7 November 71.0 31.1 39.8 December 97.8 31.1 66.7 January 102.1 31.1 71.0 February 89.6 31.1 58.5 March 67.6 31.1 36.5 April 60.4 31.1 29.3 May 39.0 31.1 7.8 June 34.0 31.1 2.9 TOTAL 735 ML/yr 373 ML/yr 362 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

69 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

1994-1995

On the 26th of January 1995 Stage 3 (of 10 stage) restrictions were implemented at Euroa and Violet Town. Restrictions were lifted on the 2nd February 1995 after a significant rainfall event.

1997-1998

Due to low stream flows and very dry seasonal conditions, Violet Town experienced Stage 5 (of 10 stage) restrictions between the 3rd February 1998 to the 3rd of March 1998. These restrictions were increased to Stage 7 on the 4th of March and further increased to Stage 8 on the 24th March. Restrictions were lifted on the 22nd April 1998.

2002-2003

70 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Stage 5 at Euroa and Violet Town on the 19th March 2003 and then lifted on the 21st May 2003.

2006-2009

Stage 1 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 29 November 2006 and were increased to Stage 2 on 13 December 2006, Stage 3 on 16 January 2007 and Stage 4 on 1 February 2007. Restrictions were eased to Stage 3 on 1 June 2007 to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and to Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. 42 ML of water was carted from Seymour to Euroa between 8 March – 4 May 2007, whilst 10.4 ML of water was carted from Murchison to Violet Town between 20 March and 9 May 2007.

2009-2017 Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

The long-term annual reliability of supply for the Euroa system was assessed using the Seven Creeks REALM Model from January 1964 to December 2015 (GHD, 2017b). The reliability of supply was assessed for the eight scenarios utilised in the Urban Water Strategy, namely under current climate baseline conditions, step climate change conditions and climate change at 2040 and 2065 (low, medium and high). Reliability of supply was 85% under current climate baseline conditions, which is below GVW’s level of service objectives. Under step climate change conditions and 2065 medium climate change conditions, the reliability remained at 85%, which is below GVW’s level of service objective.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate for the Euroa and Violet Town water supply system are:

Supply Side Options  Use of groundwater;  Water carting; and  Ministerial qualification of rights.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 29. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 28 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 29 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

3.3 Supply Side Options

Use of Groundwater Groundwater could be available from some aquifers in the Euroa-Violet Town area, and it could be used to supplement potable supplies. Treatment to a potable standard could also be investigated. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c). 72 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Carting of Water A staged plan for carting water to Euroa and Violet Town in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart water from Seymour or Murchison, depending on water availability in the Goulburn supply system. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 36.3 ML/mth (1194 kL/d) would require around 44 tankers per day of 27 kL capacity. It may therefore only be practical to meet a portion of this level of demand through water carting. Delivering 60 litres/capita/day, which is regarded as a minimum to meet basic human needs, to the 3,340 residents of Euroa and Violet Town (DPCD, 2009) would require around seven 27 kL tankers per day.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in Sevens Creek at Gooram Weir dropped below the minimum passing flow, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to continue diverting to maintain essential supply to the towns. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. This is because it is unlikely that a qualification of rights would be approved due to the environmental value of Seven Creeks. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options above. This option is regarded as a last resort when other demand reduction or supply enhancement options are unviable.

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4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Triggers for action during drought are based on the total volume in Mountain Hut, Waterhouse and Abbinga Reservoir and are contained in Table 30. These triggers assume that once the Stage 1 trigger is reached, approximately 4 months of restricted supply will be available in storage assuming no further inflows to the reservoir. If inflows to the reservoir occur, then this would lengthen the time between each stage of restriction. A buffer storage of 28 ML has been assumed in designing these triggers, which is the trigger for emergency measures.

Table 30 Euroa-Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers

Action to be taken if the Total System Storage (ML) is less than the value indicated at the start of month Month Month Month Month Month Jul 203 149 105 63 Aug 226 163 111 67 Sep 266 178 119 68 Oct 330 203 131 75 Nov 364 225 140 75 Dec 392 245 153 79 Jan 368 234 152 78 Feb 316 208 139 76 Mar 235 176 123 69 Apr 207 158 111 68 May 183 138 100 61 Jun 188 143 101 64

The process involves monitoring the total system storage at least monthly and plotting on the graph given in Figure 13. The position of the volume in storage in relation to the restriction rule curves will indicate whether or not restrictions should be introduced, and if so at what level.

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Figure 13 Drought Response Triggers for Euroa and Violet Town (ML)

900

800

Stage 1 700 Stage 2

Stage 3

600 Stage 4

Capacity

Buffer Storage 500

400 Volume in StorageVolume (ML) 300

200

100

0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Start of Month

The restriction exit triggers are listed in Table 31 and are equal to the restriction rule values (Table 30) plus 8 weeks of restricted demand and net evaporation.

Table 31 Euroa – Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Response Exit Triggers

Start of Exit Exit Exit Exit Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 355.9 264.2 200.3 146.4 August 430.5 295.4 217.1 155.5 September 491.9 346.9 238.2 163.8 October 560.7 402.7 271.5 179.7 November 587.9 435.9 298.1 195.6 December 574.5 422.5 305.4 206.0 January 481.7 381.8 283.6 195.6 February 392.7 328.5 248.3 179.7 March 333.3 278.0 216.4 159.7 April 304.0 252.2 197.5 151.1 May 287.8 231.8 183.4 139.5 June 306.1 243.4 188.2 142.7

The bulk entitlement for Euroa-Violet Town (1,990 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 735 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

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4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Annually

1) Establish and review monitoring procedures should include:

 Accurate measurement of diversion volumes, storage volumes and supply on a daily, monthly and annual basis; and

 Appropriate monitoring of Seven Creeks in relation to the Euroa bulk entitlement;

Check the seasonal climate outlook produced by the Bureau of Meteorology, which provides a three month forecast of the likelihood of exceeding median rainfall conditions (http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/rainfall/summary);

2) Update the Annual Water Outlook with relevant streamflow and climatic data, this includes information from the Bureau of Meteorology climatic forecasts. Comments and conclusions on the status of the system and areas of uncertainties should be updated to advise on the likelihood of restrictions needing to be applied in the short term.

Short to Medium Term

3) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and  During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing);

Long Term

4) Construct a new storage to replace Abbinga Reservoir that is an appropriate size to meet water supply reliability targets. Note that this project comprises two stages – Stage 1 – construction of a new 300ML storage is in progress and currently scheduled to be completed by 2018/19. Stage 2 – upgrade of the existing Abbinga Reservoir is currently programmed to be completed by 2022/23.;

5) Investigate potential groundwater development to refine potential as an emergency drought supply; and

6) Review water carting strategy. 76 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Euroa and Violet Town Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

In addition to the pre-drought actions listed above, actions triggered by likelihood of future restriction implementation are shown in Table 32 below.

Table 32 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

5. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that available water 6. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for cannot be maintained above the Level 1 restrictions in the future. Drought Response Trigger 7. Monitor water consumption and climate data to quantify effect of action. 8. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs. 9. Consider the temporary water trading options to avoid implementing restrictions.

77 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

78 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 33 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 10. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 The total system storage The decision on the appropriate stage of falls below the Stage 1 11. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Drought Response Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time particularly the recent observed streamflow behaviour. 12. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 13. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 14. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 The total system storage falls below the Stage 2 15. Continue advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details of Drought Response Trigger the restrictions. 16. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 17. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 18. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 19. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 The total system storage falls below the Stage 3 20. Continue advertising campaign. Drought Response Trigger 21. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 22. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 23. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water carting.

79 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

24. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 The total system storage Level of restriction is such that falls below the Stage 4 25. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Drought Response Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 26. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 27. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 28. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 29. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 Total system storage falls Level of restriction is such that only. below the emergency consideration of supply enhancement restriction rule value (buffer 30. Implement emergency measures such as water carting. measures is required. Action on such storage) measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

80 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.4 Post-Drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 34.

Table 34 Post-drought Actions

Action Assessment Procedure Review Objectives The appropriateness and relevance of the Objectives should be checked and revised , if needed. Evaluation of Trigger The effectiveness of the actions taken at each trigger level should be reviewed and Levels consideration given to whether the actions were appropriate at the time. The effect of restrictions on water consumption should be evaluated. Lead times for actions should also be reviewed, as well as the ability to source additional water. Assessment of Impacts The reactions of the community should be reviewed and the effectiveness of the media in the implementation of the Plan assessed. Impact on Staff Consideration should be given to determining how well the staff were able to cope in implementing the Plan and whether there were any deficiencies in the Plan from the viewpoint of the staff. Revision of Plan Given the information deduced as a result of the above actions, the Plan should be revised.

STRATHBOGIE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The Strathbogie township is supplied from Seven Creeks. The location of the town is shown in Figure 14. Raw water for Strathbogie is diverted from Seven Creeks a short distance upstream of the junction with Spring Creek. Raw water is pumped from the creek via a 173 kL/day capacity pipeline. It is then disinfected and stored in a 190 kL elevated storage prior to distribution to the town. The catchment area of Seven Creeks at the Strathbogie off-take has been estimated as 97 km2.

Figure 14 Strathbogie Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

83 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Water for the township of Strathbogie is diverted via pump from Sevens Creek, with customers receiving a non-potable supply. A Bulk Entitlement for the Strathbogie system was granted to GVW in 2012. The Bulk Entitlement has a 23 ML annual entitlement limit and a daily diversion limit of 0.4 ML, with no specified passing flow requirements. While there are no passing flow requirements, the BE does contain a low flow threshold at which GVW must contact the Goulburn Broken CMA. Extractions are limited by the capacity of the pipeline (173 kL/day) and the size of the storage (190 kL).

The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk- entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes for Strathbogie recorded since 2006/07 are shown in Table 35. Note that two years (2006/07 and 2007/08) include periods of restriction. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 23 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 36. The unrestrictable diversion of 12 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

Table 35 Strathbogie Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes

Year Annual Consumption (ML) 2006/07 N/A 2007/08 14 2008/09 17 2009/10 16 2010/11 16 2011/12 9 2012/13 12 2013/14 13 2014/15 18 2015/16 18

84 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 36 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 1.1 1.0 0.1 August 1.3 1.0 0.3 September 1.3 1.0 0.3 October 2.0 1.0 1.0 November 2.3 1.0 1.4 December 3.1 1.0 2.1 January 3.2 1.0 2.3 February 2.9 1.0 1.9 March 2.3 1.0 1.4 April 1.4 1.0 0.5 May 1.3 1.0 0.3 June 1.1 1.0 0.1 TOTAL 23 ML/yr 12 ML/yr 12 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

85 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

Restrictions at Strathbogie were historically introduced in accordance with restrictions occurring more regionally and did not reflect a specific lack of water availability at Strathbogie.

Stage 2 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 13 December 2006, increasing to Stage 3 on 16 January 2007. Restrictions were eased to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

Water for the township of Strathbogie is diverted via pump from Seven Creeks. Historically, streamflow has been sufficient to maintain supply to the town, including the more recent drought period. Streamflow is not gauged upstream of the diversion point and therefore it is difficult to quantify the reliability of the flow in this stream. The supply system has limited offstream storage which means that streamflow needs to be sustained at a minimum threshold to allow diversions to continue. The reliability of the system is therefore related to the frequency and duration that flows fall below such a threshold. Analysis has shown that the frequency and potential shortfalls is of the order of 1 in 20 years, with a duration of several weeks, meeting Goulburn Valley Water’s level of service objectives.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

86 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

87 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Strathbogie water supply system are:

Supply Side Options  Use of groundwater; and  Water carting.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 37. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 36 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 37 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

3.3 Supply Side Options Use of Groundwater Groundwater could be available from some aquifers in the Strathbogie area, and it could be used to supplement potable supplies. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c).

Carting of Water

88 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

A staged plan for carting water to Strathbogie in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart water from Euroa, depending on water availability in the Euroa supply system. There will be access difficulties for tankers taking water from Euroa’s raw water storages, hence treated water would be carted. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 0.5 ML/mth (16 kL/d) would require around 1 tanker per day of 27 kL capacity.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights There are currently no passing flow requirements on Sevens Creek, so qualification of rights for GVW’s existing entitlement is considered to be of no value to Goulburn Valley Water for this supply system.

89 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Setting drought response triggers for the Strathbogie system is difficult because the streamflow can recede quickly at low flows. It is appropriate to set triggers for this supply system based on streamflow volumes, because the supply system has negligible off-stream storage.

There is some uncertainty in low flow behaviour, because data for Spring Creek has not been recorded since 1982 and no data exists upstream of the town offtake on Seven Creeks. Given this uncertainty and the absence of defined bulk entitlement rules, it is recommended that the drought response triggers in Table 38 are adopted.

The peak monthly demand for the year 2022/23 is in the order of 0.08 ML/d. Restrictions will not need to be put in place until streamflows have dried up. A flow of 1 ML/d has been adopted as an indicative trigger for drought response. After streamflows have ceased, water is likely to be carted from Euroa, therefore remaining stages of restriction are based on restriction behaviour at Euroa. A rolling average streamflow trigger has not been used because streamflows are expected to recede over only a few days.

Table 38 Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers Action to be taken if 3 day rolling average streamflow is less than the Value indicated at any time Streamflow Stage of restriction Approximate time Peak monthly demand upstream of until next stage of (ML/d)* offtake (ML/d) restriction (days)# > 1 None n/a 0.08 1 Most severe of Stage 1-5 days 0.05 1 or Euroa restriction level 0 Emergency measures n/a 0.02 *Peak daily and peak weekly demands are likely to be higher than this value # Based on observed recession curve behaviour using poor quality data – actual behaviour at low flows is likely to vary from this. All estimates are approximate only.

If the estimated flow in Seven Creeks upstream of the offtake rises, the fast recession does not guarantee that flows will remain high. In the absence of more detailed

90 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

streamflow information, a decision about lifting of restrictions should be made on the basis of observed streamflow behaviour.

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Annually

1) Establish and review monitoring procedures should include:

a. Accurate measurement of diversion volumes, storage volumes and supply on a daily, monthly and annual basis; and

Short to Medium Term

4) Obtain a bulk entitlement conversion order for Strathbogie with defined passing flow arrangements and allowable diversion volumes;

5) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing);

Long Term

6) Review water carting strategy.

Table 39 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken . 91 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 39 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that streamflow level 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review cannot be maintained above the Level 1 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, Drought Response Trigger restrictions etc in preparation for prompt 3. Make available to consumers information on how to reduce water printing and distribution, if required. consumption.

4. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, Action 2 Moderate likelihood that streamflow level cannot be maintained above the including basis for action. Level 1 Drought Response Trigger 5. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

6. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis. 7. Monitor estimated streamflows upstream of offtake and introduce temporary streamflow monitoring arrangements upstream of the offtake when estimated flows approach Stage 1 trigger.

Action 3 High likelihood that streamflow level 8. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for cannot be maintained above the Level 1 restrictions in the future. Drought Response Trigger 9. Monitor water consumption and climate data to quantify effect of action. 10. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs. 11. Investigate emergency supply measures, such as water carting and ensure that an alternative water supply plan has been prepared.

92 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

93 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 40 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 12. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions or the equivalent level of Action 4 The streamflow falls below The decision on the appropriate stage of restrictions as Euroa. the Stage 1 Drought restriction will depend on the Response Trigger 13. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details circumstances at the time particularly the of the restrictions. recent observed streamflow behaviour and availability of water at Mansfield. 14. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 15. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required.

16. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 17. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 5 The 3 day rolling average Level of restriction is such that only. streamflow falls below the consideration of supply enhancement emergency restriction rule 18. Implement emergency measures such as water carting if required. measures is required. Action on such value (buffer storage) measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

94 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Strathbogie Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.4 Post-Drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 41.

Table 41 Post-drought Actions

Action Assessment Procedure Review Objectives The appropriateness and relevance of the Objectives should be checked and revised, if needed. Evaluation of Trigger The effectiveness of the actions taken at each trigger level should be reviewed and Levels consideration given to whether the actions were appropriate at the time. The effect of restrictions on water consumption should be evaluated. Lead times for actions should also be reviewed, as well as the ability to source additional water. Assessment of Impacts The reactions of the community should be reviewed and the effectiveness of the media in the implementation of the Plan assessed. Impact on Staff Consideration should be given to determining how well the staff were able to cope in implementing the Plan and whether there were any deficiencies in the Plan from the viewpoint of the staff. Revision of Plan Given the information deduced as a result of the above actions, the Plan should be revised.

LONGWOOD WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Longwood is supplied from the 27 ML Nine Mile Creek Reservoir which is located on the Nine Mile Creek. Prior to January 2014, the reservoir was operated at a maximum supply level of 22 ML for dam safety reasons. Remediation works were completed throughout 2014 which now enables the reservoir to be operated at the full 27 ML capacity. Water is diverted from Nine Mile Creek Reservoir through a 150mm diameter pipeline at a rate of 0.6 ML/day to the Longwood WTP.

A locality plan is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15 Longwood Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

97 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Longwood) Conversion Order 1995. The annual volume which can be diverted is 120 ML at a maximum daily rate of 1.0 ML/day. Currently there is no passing flow requirement for the Reservoir. The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk-entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes for Longwood recorded since 2006/07 are shown in Table 42. Note that two years of consumption (2006/07 and 2007/08) were restricted. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 42 Longwood System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes (ML)

Annual Year Consumption (ML) 2006/07 57 2007/08 51 2008/09 50 2009/10 49 2010/11 41 2011/12 44 2012/13 75 2013/14 63 2014/15 51 2015/16 54

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 64 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 43. The unrestrictable diversion of 29 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

98 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 43 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 2.8 2.4 0.4 August 3.3 2.4 0.9 September 3.1 2.4 0.7 October 4.9 2.4 2.5 November 6.0 2.4 3.6 December 8.5 2.4 6.1 January 9.3 2.4 6.8 February 8.3 2.4 5.9 March 7.5 2.4 5.1 April 4.1 2.4 1.7 May 3.0 2.4 0.6 June 2.7 2.4 0.3 TOTAL 64 ML/yr 29 ML/yr 35 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed: Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

99 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

1994-1995

Stage 3 (of 10 stage) restrictions were imposed in Longwood on the 26th January 1995 and reduced to Stage 2 on the 22nd March 1995. Restrictions were lifted on the 31st March 1995.

1997-1998

Due to low stream flows, Longwood experienced Stage 2 (of 10 stage) restrictions from the 11th January 1998. On the 12th February 1998 restrictions were increased to Stage 5 and lifted on the 10th February 1998.

2002-2003

2006-2009

This period saw a succession of dry years, including the extremely dry year of 2006/07. Stage 1 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 19 October 2006 and were increased to Stage 2 on 6 December 2006, Stage 3 on 16 January 2007 and Stage 4 on 14 March 2007. Restrictions were eased to Stage 3 on 4 April 2007 to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions remained in place until 5 February 2009, when Stage 3 restrictions were re-introduced. Restrictions were then increased to Stage 4 on 3 March 2009 and then reduced to Stage 3 on 8 April 2009 and to Stage 1 on 11 May 2009. Stage 1 restrictions were in place at the time of preparing this document.

100 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2009-2017 Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

The long-term annual reliability of supply for the Longwood system was assessed using the Longwood REALM Model from July 1976 to December 2015 (GHD, 2017b). The reliability of supply was assessed for the eight scenarios utilised in the Urban Water Strategy, namely under current climate baseline conditions, step climate change conditions and climate change at 2040 and 2065 (low, medium and high). Reliability of supply was 100% under historic conditions, which meets GVW’s level of service objectives. Under step climate change conditions the reliability dropped to 83%, while under 2065 medium climate change conditions reliability dropped to 88%, which are both below GVW’s level of service objective.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

101 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Longwood water supply system are:

Demand Site Options  Encourage water conservation (voluntary restrictions) as requested in an appropriate advertising campaign;  Staged restrictions on water use in accordance with By-Law 512 (Appendix A);  Water Efficiency Objectives;

Supply Site Options  Use of groundwater; and  Carting of water.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 44. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 43 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 44 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

Use of Groundwater Groundwater could be available from some aquifers in the Longwood area, and it could be used to supplement potable supplies. Treatment to a potable standard could also be required. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c).

102 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Carting of Water A staged plan for carting water to Longwood in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart water from Euroa or Seymour, depending on water availability in these supply systems. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 3.3 ML/mth (109 kL/d) would require around 4 tankers per day of 27 kL capacity. Delivering 60 litres/capita/day, which is regarded as a minimum to meet basic human needs, to the 150 residents of Longwood (DPCD, 2009) and rural residential properties located between the water treatment plant and the Hume Freeway, would require approximately one 27 kL tanker per day.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights There are currently no passing flows on Nine Mile Creek Reservoir, so qualification of rights for GVW’s existing entitlement is considered to be of no value to Goulburn Valley Water for this supply system.

103 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Triggers for action during drought are based on the volume in Nine Mile Creek Reservoir and are contained in Table 45. These triggers assume that once the Stage 1 trigger is reached, approximately 2 months of restricted supply will be available in storage assuming no further inflows to the reservoir. If inflows to the reservoir occur, then this would lengthen the time between each stage of restriction. A buffer storage of 1 ML has been assumed in designing these triggers, which is the trigger for emergency measures.

Table 45 Longwood Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers Action to be taken if Remaining Storage (ML) is less than the Value indicated at the start of month Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 9.4 6.6 4.5 2.5 August 11.0 7.7 5.0 2.9 September 12.7 8.7 5.5 2.9 October 15.5 10.4 6.5 3.4 November 17.3 11.6 7.0 3.5 December 18.5 12.7 7.8 3.7 January 17.6 12.2 7.7 3.7 February 14.8 10.9 6.9 3.5 March 11.9 8.8 6.2 3.2 April 8.8 6.8 4.8 3.0 May 8.0 5.9 4.2 2.5 June 8.4 6.2 4.2 2.6

The process involves monitoring the total system storage at least monthly and plotting on the graph given in Figure 16. The position of the volume in storage in relation to the restriction rule curves will indicate whether or not restrictions should be introduced, and if so at what level.

104 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 16 Longwood Water Supply Demand Restriction Curve

25.0

20.0 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Capacity 15.0 Buffer storage

10.0 Volume in in Storage Volume (ML)

5.0

0.0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Start of Month

The restriction exit triggers are listed in Table 46 and are equal to the restriction rule values (Table 45) plus 8 weeks of restricted demand and net evaporation. Where the exit trigger has been set to 22.0 ML, it indicates that the storage must be refilled to capacity to avoid having to re-instate restrictions within 2 months if no diversion occur over this period.

Table 46 Longwood Water Supply System Restriction Exit Triggers

Exit Exit Exit Exit Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 21.1 16.8 13.1 10.1 August 22.0 18.9 14.3 10.7 September 22.0 22.0 16.1 11.5 October 22.0 22.0 19.0 13.1 November 22.0 22.0 21.8 14.7 December 22.0 22.0 22.0 15.9 January 22.0 22.0 22.0 15.5 February 22.0 22.0 19.8 14.5 March 22.0 20.5 16.0 12.1 April 18.2 15.5 12.5 10.2 May 17.3 14.3 11.7 9.5 June 18.6 15.1 12.1 9.8

The bulk entitlement for Longwood (120 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 64 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set. 105 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Annually

1) Establish monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of diversion volumes, storage volumes, and supply on a daily, monthly and annual basis; and

 Continue monitoring of inflows to the Nine Mile Creek Reservoir during periods of no rainfall, particularly during extreme drought conditions;

Short to Medium Term

4) Continue investigation of options to repair the Nine Mile Creek Reservoir and update the Drought Preparedness Plan if supply conditions change. This project has been already completed.

5) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought, and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing); and

Long Term

6) Develop water carting program.

Table 47 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken. 106 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 47 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that available water 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review cannot be maintained above the Level 1 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, Drought Response Trigger restrictions etc in preparation for prompt printing and distribution, if required. Action 2 Moderate likelihood that available water 3. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, cannot be maintained above the Level 1 including basis for action. Drought Response Trigger 4. Make available to consumers information on how to reduce water consumption.

5. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

6. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that available water 7. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for cannot be maintained above the Level 1 restrictions in the future. Drought Response Trigger 8. Monitor water consumption and climate data to quantify effect of action. 9. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs.

107 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

The DRP is prepared for responding to the Drought Phase which defines defines an active drought response period where supply and/or demand side measures are required to maintain supply reliability. The Drought Response Triggers are used to trigger an increase in the severity of the water shortage measure being implemented. Responses during each level of action are summarised in Table 48.

108 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 48 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 10. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 The system storage falls The decision on the appropriate stage of below the Stage 1 Drought 11. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Response Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time particularly the recent observed streamflow behaviour. 12. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 13. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 14. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 The system storage falls below the Stage 2 Drought 15. Continue advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details of Response Trigger the restrictions. 16. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 17. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 18. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 19. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 The system storage falls below the Stage 3 Drought 20. Continue advertising campaign. Response Trigger 21. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 22. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 23. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water carting.

109 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Goulburn River Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

24. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 The system storage falls Level of restriction is such that below the Stage 4 Drought 25. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Response Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 26. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 27. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 28. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 29. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 System storage falls below Level of restriction is such that only. the emergency restriction consideration of supply enhancement rule value (buffer storage) 30. Implement emergency measures such as water carting. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

110 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Longwood Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.4 Post-drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 49.

Table 49 Post-drought Action

111 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

MARYSVILLE-BUXTON WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

112 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The townships of Marysville and Buxton are supplied from the Steavenson River at Marysville. Raw water is diverted from an off-take downstream of Steavenson Falls. Raw water gravitates 2 kilometres via a pipeline to the 100ML Aub Cuzens Reservoir. Raw Water from Aub Cuzens Reservoir gravitates to the Marysville WTP and then to customers in Marysville and Buxton. A locality plan of the region is shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17 Marysville-Buxton Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

113 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Marysville) Conversion Order 1995 and the Bulk Entitlement (Buxton) Conversion Order 1995. The annual volume which can be diverted under the Marysville entitlement is 462 ML at a maximum daily rate of 2.0 ML/day and with a minimum passing flow of 2.0 ML/d.

The annual volume which can be diverted under the Buxton entitlement is 110 ML at a maximum daily rate of 0.9 ML/d. There are no passing flows in the Buxton entitlement. In practice, the Buxton entitlement is no longer used and supply to Buxton occurs via the Marysville diversion.

The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk- entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes recorded since 2006/07 are shown in Table 50. Note that two years of consumption (2006/07 and 2007/08) were restricted. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 50 Marysville-Buxton Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes Annual Year Consumption (ML) 2006/07 337 2007/08 330 2008/09 268 2009/10 184 2010/11 157 2011/12 155 2012/13 158 2013/14 187 2014/15 169 2015/16 281

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 343 ML/yr. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 51. The unrestrictable diversion of 216 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion and includes industrial usage. This base demand is relatively high because of the influx of tourists into the town in winter and may overestimate actual base demand in summer. This supply system also has a high component of unaccounted for losses.

114 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 51 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 21 18 3 August 23 18 5 September 23 18 5 October 27 18 9 November 32 18 14 December 40 18 22 January 41 18 23 February 37 18 19 March 31 18 13 April 28 18 10 May 22 18 4 June 21 18 3 TOTAL 343 ML/yr 216 ML/yr 127 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

115 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past drought Experience

Stage 1 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced at Marysville and Buxton on 13 December 2006. These were increased to Stage 3 restrictions on 1 July 2007 and were subsequently reduced to Stage 2 restrictions on 7 September 2007. These restrictions eased to Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply The long-term annual reliability of supply for the Marysville system was assessed using Marysville REALM Model from July 1976 to December 2015 (GHD, 2017b). The reliability of supply was assessed for the eight scenarios utilised in the Urban Water Strategy, namely under current climate baseline conditions, step climate change conditions and climate change at 2040 and 2065 (low, medium and high). Reliability of supply was 100% under current climate baseline conditions, meeting level of service objectives. Under the step climate change conditions and 2065 medium climate change conditions, the reliability remained at 100%.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

116 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

117 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Marysville water supply system are:

Demand Side Options  Advertising campaign to encourage water conservation (voluntary restrictions);  Pressure and loss reduction;  Staged restrictions on water use in accordance with By-Law 512 (Appendix A);  Water efficiency objectives;

Supply Side Options  Use of reclaimed water;  Groundwater;  Temporary pipeline from Taggerty River;  Carting of water to Marysville and Buxton in the event of extreme measures; and  Ministerial qualification of water rights.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 52. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 51 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 52 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

Pressure and Loss Reduction The Marysville-Buxton supply system has a high volume of water lost through leakage. Temporarily reducing the supply pressure would be expected to reduce the volume of these losses. Equally, investigating the source of the losses could also be a way of reducing their volume.

3.3 Supply Side Options 118 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Reclaimed Water Reclaimed water from the Marysville wastewater treatment could possibly be used for certain activities not requiring potable water. This could include roadworks. EPA approval is required for these applications.

Groundwater No information is available on groundwater. However, substantial gravel beds underlay the river flats beside the Steavenson and Taggerty Rivers, and these could be a source of water in drought periods. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c).

Surface Supply Sources The Marysville and Buxton system is supplied from the Steavenson River. Approximately 3 km to the north of Marysville the Taggerty River joins the Steavenson River. This river has a larger catchment, and could provide some water during drought periods. A temporary pipeline could be used to capture this water, subject to appropriate approvals. It is estimated that such approvals could take several weeks, depending on the urgency of the need for the diversion and likely impacts on the river environment and downstream users. Engineering works may also take several weeks.

Water Cartage A staged plan for carting water to Marysville and Buxton in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart water from Alexandra or the aforementioned site on the Taggerty River, depending on water availability in the Goulburn system. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 18 ML/mth (590 kL/d) would require around 22 tankers per day of 27 kL capacity. This indicates that this may only be feasible to partially meet demands by water carting. Delivering 60 litres/capita/day, which is regarded as a minimum to meet basic human needs, to the 200 residents of Buxton and the 480 residents of Marysville (DPCD, 2009) would require around one to two 27 kL tankers per day. These population figures exclude visitors.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in the Steavenson River dropped below 2 ML/d, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to continue diverting to maintain essential supply to the towns. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options above. This option is regarded as a last resort when other demand reduction or supply enhancement options are unviable. The lead time to implement this option will

119 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

vary according to the extent to which third parties and the environment are likely to be affected by the qualification.

120 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Triggers for action during drought are based on the volume in Aub Cuzens Reservoir and are contained in Table 53. These triggers assume that once the Stage 1 trigger is reached, approximately 2 months of restricted supply will be available in storage assuming no further inflows to the reservoir. If inflows to the reservoir occur, then this would lengthen the time between each stage of restriction. A buffer storage of 10 ML has been assumed in designing these triggers, which is the trigger for emergency measures.

Table 53 Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers Action to be taken if Remaining Storage (ML) is less than the Value indicated at the start of month Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 50 39 28 19 August 52 40 29 19 September 55 41 30 19 October 60 44 31 20 November 64 46 32 20 December 67 49 33 20 January 65 48 33 20 February 60 46 32 20 March 54 42 30 19 April 51 39 29 19 May 47 37 27 18 June 48 37 28 18

The process involves monitoring the total system storage at least monthly and plotting on the graph given in Figure 18. The position of the volume in storage in relation to the restriction rule curves will indicate whether or not restrictions should be introduced, and if so at what level.

121 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 18 Marysville-Buxton Water Supply Demand Restriction Curve

120

100 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

80 Stage 4 Capacity Storage Buffer

60 Volume in StorageVolume (ML) 40

0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Start of Month

The restriction exit triggers are listed in Table 54 and are equal to the restriction rule values (Table 53) plus 8 weeks of restricted demand and net evaporation. Where the exit trigger is set at 100 ML, it indicates that the storage must be refilled to capacity to avoid having to re-instate restrictions within 2 months if no diversions occur over this period.

Table 54 Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Response Exit Triggers

Exit Exit Exit Exit Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 98 83 69 57 August 100 88 72 59 September 100 96 77 62 October 100 100 84 65 November 100 100 91 70 December 100 100 95 73 January 100 100 93 72 February 100 100 85 67 March 100 93 77 63 April 98 85 71 58 May 90 78 65 54 June 92 79 66 55

The bulk entitlement for Marysville (462 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 343 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set. 122 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Prior to the next drought, Goulburn Valley Water needs to instigate a number of actions to ensure it is able to respond effectively and in a timely manner. This section outlines these pre-drought actions.

Annually 1) Establish and review monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of extraction volumes, volume in storage and supply delivery on a daily, monthly and annual basis; and

 Obtaining information on the behaviour of the Steavenson River relevant to the BE (ie river flows), particularly during low flow periods.

Medium Term

4) Investigate whether the entitlement for Buxton can be transferred to Marysville. This would ensure that diversions to the two towns do not exceed GVW’s entitlement to divert at the Marysville offtake;

5) Reduce non-revenue water, where possible;

6) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing); and

Long Term

7) Review water carting strategy; and 123 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

8) Investigate potential for ground water development to refine potential as an emergency drought supply.

Table 55 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken.

124 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 55 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that total available water 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review storage cannot be maintained above the 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, Level 1 Drought Response Trigger restrictions etc in preparation for prompt printing and distribution, if required. Action 2 Moderate likelihood that total available 3. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, water storage cannot be maintained including basis for action. above the Level 1 Drought Response 4. Make available to consumers information on how to reduce water Trigger consumption.

5. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

6. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that available water 7. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for storage cannot be maintained above the restrictions in the future. Level 1 Drought Response Trigger 8. Monitor water consumption and climate data to quantify effect of action. 9. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs.

125 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION

4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

The DRP is prepared for responding to the Drought Phase which definesThe Drought Phase defines an active drought response period where supply and/or demand side measures are required to maintain supply reliability. The Drought Response Triggers are used to trigger an increase in the severity of the water shortage measure being implemented. Responses during each level of action are summarised in Table 56.

126 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 56 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 10. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 The total system storage The decision on the appropriate stage of 11. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details falls below the Stage 1 restriction will depend on the Drought Response Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time, particularly any 12. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. forecasts by the system authority (GMW) 13. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use as to prospects for the rest of season. if the next stage of restriction is required. 14. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 The total system storage It is expected that these restrictions will falls below the Stage 2 15. Continue advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details of reduce the restrictable demand by a Drought Response Trigger the restrictions. considerable amount in total demand. 16. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. The AWRC considers that 100L/c/d is a 17. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. basic minimum supply for small 18. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use communities in times where water if the next stage of restriction is required. resources are very limited. Applications for assistance with emergency supplies could only be authorised if supplies have been restricted to 60L/c/d and no outside water use at all is permitted. 19. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 The total system storage falls below the Stage 3 20. Continue advertising campaign. Drought Response Trigger 21. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 22. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 23. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water supply from the Taggerty River. *Note: Restriction rule values have been determined from information available on the effect of stages of restriction on water consumption. Information obtained on the effect of restriction on demand and the short-term climate outlook during a drought should, as far as possible be taken into account in determining further restriction levels.

127 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

24. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 The total system storage Level of restriction is such that falls below the Stage 4 25. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Drought Response Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 26. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 27. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 28. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water supply from the Taggerty River. 29. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 Total system storage falls Level of restriction is such that only. below the emergency consideration of supply enhancement restriction rule value (buffer 30. Implement emergency measures such as water carting or supply from the measures is required. Action on such storage) Taggerty River measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

128 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Marysville-Buxton Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4.4 Post-drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 57.

Table 57 Post-drought Action

129

PYALONG WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Raw water for Pyalong is diverted from the town weir constructed on Mollisons Creek near the Northern Highway. Raw water is diverted by pumping to a 40ML raw water storage basin. From the raw water storage basin water is pumped to a 1ML storage tank. Raw water flows by gravity to the Pyalong WTP from the 1ML tank and treated water is stored in a 0.9ML storage prior to distribution to customers.

A schematic of the Pyalong supply system is shown in Figure 19 and a locality plan is shown in Figure 20.

Figure 19 Pyalong Water Supply System 1ML Pyalong Raw Water Storage Tank

40ML Pyalong Raw Water Storage Basin

Pyalong WTP

Pyalong

Raw Water Pumps

Pyalong Town Weir

Mollison’s Creek

131 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 20 Pyalong Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

132 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMWORK

2.1 Supply Context Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Pyalong) Conversion Order 1997. The annual volume which can be diverted is 75 ML at a maximum daily rate of 0.72 ML/day. Currently there is no passing flow requirement for the creek.

Under the conditions of the bulk entitlement, GVW is also entitled to the water stored in the town diversion weir, provided that total diversions do not exceed the annual diversion limit of 75ML.

The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk- entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes for Pyalong recorded since 2006/07 are listed in Table 58. Note that two years of consumption (2006/07 and 2007/08) were restricted. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 58 Pyalong System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes (ML)

Annual Consumption Year (ML) 2006/07 47 2007/08 51 2008/09 49 2009/10 40 2010/11 55 2011/12 31 2012/13 36 2013/14 31 2014/15 35 2015/16 37

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 39 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 59. The unrestrictable diversion of 23 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

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Table 59 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 2.4 1.9 0.4 August 2.6 1.9 0.7 September 2.7 1.9 0.8 October 3.4 1.9 1.4 November 3.7 1.9 1.8 December 4.2 1.9 2.3 January 4.8 1.9 2.9 February 4.2 1.9 2.3 March 4.0 1.9 2.1 April 3.0 1.9 1.1 May 2.7 1.9 0.8 June 1.8 1.9 0.0 TOTAL 39 ML/yr 23 ML/yr 16 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

134 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past drought Experience

1996-1999

Low stream flows occurred in Mollisons Creek which required the introduction of water restrictions. The details of the water supply restrictions imposed during the 1996/97 and 1998/99 years were:

Stage 1 - Voluntary restrictions  15th January 1997 to 15th May 1997

Stage 5 - Prohibited the use of fixed sprinklers on any private garden, but allows hand held hoses to be used.  14th January 1999 to 27th May 1999

Stage 6 - Limited garden watering to a single hand held hose to between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm with a watering can at other times.  17th December 1997 to 22nd April 1998

2000-2003

2006-2017

Stage 1 restrictions were introduced on 13 December 2006 and increased to Stage 2 restrictions on 1 May 2007 and to Stage 3 on 1 July 2007. Restrictions eased to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and to Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

135 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2.5 Reliability of Supply The long-term annual reliability of supply for the Pyalong system was assessed using the Pyalong REALM Model from July 1976 to December 2015 (GHD, 2017b). The reliability of supply was assessed for the eight scenarios utilised in the Urban Water Strategy, namely under current climate baseline conditions, step climate change conditions and climate change at 2040 and 2065 (low, medium and high). Reliability of supply was 93% under current climate baseline conditions, which meets GVW’s level of service objectives. Under the step climate change conditions, reliability dropped to 90%, still meeting level of service objectives, while under 2065 medium climate change conditions reliability dropped further to 88%, below level of service objective.

There is some uncertainty in reliability of supply estimates for this supply system. This is because the water resource model does not include water quality, which can impact on the volumes of water that can actually be diverted relative to that assumed in the model.

2.6 Water Quality Water from Mollison Creek is relatively saline and diversions only occur after a ‘first flush’ flow has reduced salinity levels in the Creek to below 500 mg/L. This constraint is an important consideration for management of the Pyalong system.

2.7 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

2.8 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.9 Exemptions

136 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Pyalong water supply system are:

Supply Side Options  Drawing down of the town weir; and  Carting of water to Pyalong.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 60. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 59 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 60 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

3.3 Supply Side Options

Drawing Down of the Town Weir Under the conditions of GVW’s bulk entitlement, it is entitled to the volume of water in the 20 ML town weir on Mollison Creek. This means that GVW can continue to divert water even after streamflows have stopped. The ability to utilise this water will depend on the quality of water, as salinity would be expected to increase as streamflows decrease.

Water Cartage 137 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

GVW has previously assessed a range of supply augmentation options for the Pyalong system, addressing the supply security and/or water quality issues. Overall, it was concluded that in the short to medium term, the most cost effective option is to continue carting treated water to the town, and continue to monitor demand for deviations from the forecast. If demand monitoring reveals that the actual demand is higher than the forecast over a sustained period, consideration should be given to construct the Tooborac pipeline for both supply security and water quality improvement.

For the short to medium term, GVW has adopted the recommended approach of continuing to cart water to the raw water storage, and monitoring demand for deviations from the forecast. Typical water carting costs are of the order of $400 per 20kL load, or $20k/ML.

Groundwater GVW has completed investigations into groundwater in the past and has not found a reliable resource. For this reason, water carting is preferred to groundwater as an emergency supply. A bore at the creek near to the existing pump station has been used in the past as an emergency resource. This would need to be tested for quality and quantity before re-commissioning.

Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009c). A licence would need to be granted to GVW prior to pumping from the bore.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights There are currently no passing flows on Mollison Creek, so qualification of rights for GVW’s existing entitlement is considered to be of no value to Goulburn Valley Water for this supply system.

138 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

Triggers for action during drought are based on the volume in the Pyalong Basin and are contained in Table 61. These triggers have been revised as part of the preparation of the 2017 UWS, and incorporate the use of water carting as a supply source to the system. The triggers are based on the previous rules for the Pyalong system, with all triggers lowered by a constant value to remove the storage buffer. This results in the Stage 4 restriction trigger in June reducing to a storage level of 0 ML. The storage buffer was considered unnecessary as water carting has been adopted by GVW as a supply source.

Table 61 Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers Action to be taken if Remaining Storage (ML) is less than the Value indicated at the start of month Month Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 July 13.1 8.8 4.5 0.2 August 16.6 11.3 5.9 0.6 September 21.4 14.9 8.3 1.8 October 24.7 17.3 10.0 2.7 November 25.0 17.7 10.4 3.0 December 21.9 15.7 9.5 3.3 January 17.6 12.8 8.0 3.2 February 14.3 10.4 6.6 2.8 March 10.1 7.3 4.5 1.8 April 8.0 5.6 3.2 0.8 May 8.0 5.4 2.8 0.2 June 9.0 6.0 3.0 0.0

The process involves monitoring the total system storage at least monthly and plotting on the graph given in Figure 21. The position of the volume in storage in relation to the restriction rule curves will indicate whether or not restrictions should be introduced, and if so at what level.

To minimise the duration of restrictions when they are implemented, restriction exit triggers previously developed for the system have been removed.

139 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 21 Pyalong Water Supply Demand Drought Response Curve

The bulk entitlement for Pyalong (75 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 39 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

 Accurate measurement of extraction volumes, volume in storage and supply delivery on a daily, monthly and annual basis; and

 Obtaining streamflow information for Mollisons Creek at gauge 405238; and 140 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 Spot measurement of salinity in the weir pool in periods of low flow or during runoff events immediately after periods of low flow.

Medium Term

4) Establish a means by which the volume of water in the Town Weir can be readily estimated, and investigate the likely cost and water quality implications for accessing water from the weir;

5) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing); and

Long Term

6) Review water carting strategy; and

7) Investigate potential for ground water development to refine potential as an emergency drought supply.

Table 62 indicates what steps should be implemented based on the likelihood of action needing to be taken.

141 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 62 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that Basin storage 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review cannot be maintained above the Level 1 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, Drought Response Trigger restrictions etc in preparation for prompt printing and distribution, if required. Action 2 Moderate likelihood that Basin storage 3. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, cannot be maintained above the Level 1 including basis for action. Drought Response Trigger 4. Make available to consumers information on how to reduce water consumption.

5. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

6. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that Basin storage 7. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for cannot be maintained above the Level 1 restrictions in the future. Drought Response Trigger 8. Monitor water consumption and climate data to quantify effect of action. 9. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs. 10. Draw down 20 ML town weir to keep off-stream storage full if quality is adequate.

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4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

143 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Pyalong Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 63 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 11. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 Basin storage falls below the The decision on the appropriate stage of Stage 1 Drought Response 12. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time, particularly any forecasts by the system authority (GMW) 13. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. as to prospects for the rest of season. 14. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 15. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 Basin storage falls below the Stage 2 Drought Response 16. Continue advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details of Trigger the restrictions. 17. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 18. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 19. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 20. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 Basin storage falls below the Stage 3 Drought Response 21. Continue advertising campaign. Trigger 22. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 23. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 24. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water carting.

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25. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 Basin storage falls below the Level of restriction is such that Stage 4 Drought Response 26. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 27. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 28. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 29. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 30. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 Basin storage falls below the Level of restriction is such that only. emergency restriction rule consideration of supply enhancement value (buffer storage) 31. Implement emergency measures such as water carting. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

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4.4 Post-drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 64.

Table 64 Post-drought Action

Action Assessment Procedure Review Objectives The appropriateness and relevance of the Objectives should be checked and revised, if needed. Evaluation of Trigger The effectiveness of the actions taken at each trigger level should be reviewed and Levels consideration given to whether the actions wre appropriate at the time. The effect of restrictions on water consumption should be evaluated. Lead times for actions should also be reviewed, as well as the ability to source additional water. Assessment of The reactions of the community should be reviewed and the effectiveness of the media Impacts in the implementation of the Plan assessed. Impact on Staff Consideration should be given to determining how well staff were able to cope in implementing the Plan and whether there were any deficiencies in the Plan from the viewpoint of the staff. Revision of Plan Given the information deduced as a result of the above actions, the Plan should be revised.

146

WOODS POINT WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Raw water for Woods Point is diverted from a weir on Brewery Creek a short distance upstream of the junction with the Goulburn River. Raw water gravitates from the weir via a 100mm diameter pipeline and is disinfected before being stored in a 5kL tank for distribution to the town. The system also receives a supplementary supply from a diversion point on the Goulburn River located downstream of the confluence with Brewery Creek, with a pump station installed on the Goulburn River in 2010. A pipeline is connected to the existing gravity pipeline from Brewery Creek.

Customer connections are currently not individually metered and due to its remote location the town is only visited on a weekly or fortnightly basis by operators.

The location of the Woods Point offtakes is shown in Figure 22 and a locality plan of the town in shown in

148 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 23.

Figure 22 Woods Point offtakes

Woods Point off take

Goulburn River off take Woods Point Township

149 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Figure 23 Woods Point Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

150 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Following the installation of the Goulburn River pump station in 2010, Goulburn Valley Water’s Bulk Entitlement was amended to enable diversions to occur from this location on the Goulburn River. The rules for diversion from Brewery Creek and the Goulburn River are summarised below:

 GVW may divert up to a total of 30 ML/a at a maximum rate of 0.2 ML/d;

 Flows in Brewery Creek less than 0.2 ML/d must be passed; and

 GVW may divert up to 0.2 ML/d of the flow at the Goulburn River offtake, less the volume it is taking from Brewery Creek (noting that there is no additional passing flow requirement downstream of the Goulburn River diversion site).

The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk- entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes for Woods Point recorded since 2006/07 are listed in Table 65. The town comprises mainly residential properties. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 65 Woods Point System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes (ML)

Annual Consumption Year (ML) 2006/07 18 2007/08 25 2008/09 34 2009/10 17 2010/11 12 2011/12 11 2012/13 9 2013/14 8 2014/15 5 2015/16 7

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 21 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 66. The unrestrictable diversion of 15 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

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Table 66 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 1.7 1.3 0.4 August 1.4 1.3 0.1 September 1.5 1.3 0.3 October 2.2 1.3 1.0 November 2.2 1.3 1.0 December 2.1 1.3 0.8 January 2.8 1.3 1.5 February 1.5 1.3 0.3 March 2.2 1.3 1.0 April 1.8 1.3 0.6 May 1.4 1.3 0.1 June 1.4 1.3 0.1 TOTAL 21 ML/yr 15 ML/yr 5 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

152 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

Stage 4 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 13 December 2006. These high level restrictions were implemented in December 2006 due to low flows experienced in Brewery Creek These were reduced to Stage 3 restrictions on 16 May 2007 and then further eased to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

The town of Woods Point is supplied from Brewery Creek, with a supplementary supply from the Goulburn River immediately downstream of the confluence with Brewery Creek. Streamflow is not gauged upstream of the diversion points and therefore it is difficult to quantify the reliability of the flow in this stream. The supply system has limited offstream storage which means that streamflow needs to be sustained at a minimum threshold to allow diversions to continue. The reliability of the system is therefore related to the frequency and duration that flows fall below such a threshold. Analysis has shown that the frequency and potential shortfalls is of the order of 1 in 20 years, with a duration of several weeks meeting GVW level of service objectives.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

153 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

154 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Woods Point water supply system are:

Supply Side Options  Water carting; and  Ministerial qualification of rights.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 67. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 66 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 67 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

155 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

3.3 Supply Side Options

Carting of Water A staged plan for carting water to Woods Point in a severe drought where emergency measures are required should be prepared. Tankers could be used to cart water from Lake Eildon or from nearby water holes on the Goulburn River. Note that it may not be practical to cart water to Woods Point from other towns supplied by GVW because of the travel time to Woods Point. Typical tanker size is around 27 kL. Delivering the base demand of 0.8 ML/mth (26 kL/d) would require around 1 tanker per day of 27 kL capacity. Delivering 60 litres/capita/day, which is regarded as a minimum to meet basic human needs, to the 94 residents of Woods Point would require around one 6 kL tanker per day.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in Brewery Creek dropped below 0.2 ML/d, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to divert additional water from Brewery Creek in order to maintain essential supply to the town. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options above. This option is regarded as a last resort when other demand reduction or supply enhancement options are unviable.

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4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

It is not considered practical to use the volume in storage to trigger the introduction of water restrictions, as the system has limited storage capacity. Under current conditions, the trigger for water restrictions will be low river flow limiting diversion to an extreme drought. Action required is to monitor river flows after an extreme dry season.

Triggers for action during low flow periods are shown in Table 68. When streamflows in Brewery Creek are less than 0.2 ML/d, Woods Point is to be supplied from the Goulburn River. Once supply has switched to the Goulburn River, restriction triggers are based on streamflow volumes upstream of the Goulburn River offtake. In the absence of gauged data upstream of the offtakes, streamflows can be estimated using the following relationships:

For Brewery Creek offtake:

Q405322 = 0.005 * (Q405263)

Where: Q405263 = Flow on Goulburn River upstream of Snake Creek junction Q405322 = Flow at Brewery Creek offtake

For Goulburn River offtake: m Qproposedofftake = [(Q405263)*(Aproposedofftake/A405263) ]

Where: Q405263 = Flow on Goulburn River upstream of Snake Creek junction A405263 = Area upstream of Goulburn River upstream of Snake Creek junction = 327 km2 Q405322 = Flow at proposed Goulburn River offtake 2 A405322 = Area upstream of proposed Goulburn River offtake = 25 km m = 0.8 (from regional relationship in SKM, 2006)

157 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 68 Woods Point Supply System Drought Response Triggers

Action to be taken if 3 day rolling average streamflow is less than the Value indicated at any time 3 day rolling Stage of Approximate 3 day rolling Peak monthly average streamflow restriction time until next average demand upstream of stage of allowable (ML/d)* Goulburn River restriction diversion offtake (ML/d) (days)# (ML/d) >1 None n/a 0.2 0.06 1 1 19 0.2 0.06 0.6 2 13 0.2 0.05 0.4 3 23 0.2 0.04 0.2 4 23 0.2 0.03 0.1 Emergency n/a 0.1 0.03 measures *Peak daily and peak weekly demands are likely to be higher than this value #Based on master recession curve behaviour for Brewery Creek in 2007 and 2008 – actual behaviour in the Goulburn River upstream of the offtake is likely to vary from this and the time between stages of restriction may be shorter. All estimates are approximate only, particularly between Stage 4 and emergency measures.

If the flow in the Goulburn River upstream of the offtake rises above 6 ML/d, then based on the recession curve behaviour of the stream, the Stage 1 trigger would not be expected to be reached again within 8 weeks. No restrictions should be lifted until the flow returns to above 6 ML/d.

In practice GVW is planning to switch over to the Goulburn River diversion point when the 0.2 ML/d diversion limit is experienced on Brewery Creek. GVW is not planning to implement any water restrictions up to this point. Water restrictions may also not be required after switching to the Goulburn River supply as there is no passing flow requirement. Water restrictions for Woods Point are most likely in practice to be based on regional water supply availability rather than a specific shortfall in supply at Woods Point.

The bulk entitlement for Woods Point (30 ML/yr) is still in excess of the dry year demand of 21 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is little likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

4.2 Pre-drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

158 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Annually 1) Establish and review monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of extraction volumes on a monthly and annual basis;

 Estimating streamflow at the Brewery Creek offtake based on the relationship presented under the drought triggers section of this Plan.

 Estimating streamflow at the Goulburn River offtake based on the relationship presented under the drought triggers section of this Plan.

 Continued monitoring of the Goulburn River upstream of Snake Creek Junction (gauge 405263).

Short to Medium Term

4) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing);

Long Term

5) Investigate potential for ground water development to refine potential as an emergency drought supply, if required; and 6) Review water carting strategy, if required.

Table 69 indicates what steps should be taken given the likelihood of action needing to be applied.

159 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 69 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments

Action 1 Low likelihood that Brewery Creek 32. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. It would be appropriate to review offtake will drop below 0.2 ML/day 33. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, restrictions etc in preparation for prompt Action 2 Moderate likelihood that Brewery Creek 34. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, printing and distribution, if required. offtake will drop below 0.2 ML/day including basis for action.

35. Make available to consumers information on how to reduce water consumption. 36. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries.

37. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis.

Action 3 High likelihood that Brewery Creek 38. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for offtake will drop below 0.2 ML/day restrictions in the future. 39. Monitor water consumption and climate data to quantify effect of action. 40. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs.

Action 4 Streamflow upstream of Brewery Creek 41. Switch source of supply from Brewery Creek offtake to the Goulburn The relationship between Goulburn offtake drops below 0.2 ML/day River offtake. River flows and Brewery Creek flows is uncertain, hence Action 2 may occur either before or after restrictions are put in place in subsequent actions.

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4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

161 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Woods Point Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 70 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 42. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 5 Streamflow falls below the The decision on the appropriate stage of Stage 1 Drought Response 43. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time, particularly any forecasts by the system authority (GMW) 44. Monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. as to prospects for the rest of season. 45. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 46. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 6 Streamflow falls below the Stage 2 Drought Response 47. Continue advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details of Trigger the restrictions. 48. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 49. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 50. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 51. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 7 Streamflow falls below the Stage 3 Drought Response 52. Continue advertising campaign. Trigger 53. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 54. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 55. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water carting.

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56. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 8 Streamflow falls below the Level of restriction is such that Stage 4 Drought Response 57. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 58. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 59. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 60. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 61. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 9 Streamflow falls below the Level of restriction is such that only. emergency restriction rule consideration of supply enhancement value 62. Implement emergency measures such as water carting. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

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4.4 Post-drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised below in Table 71.

Table 71 Post-drought Action

164

YEA WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

DROUGHT PREPAREDNESS PLAN

FEBRUARY 2017

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Yea Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

1 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Raw water for Yea is pumped from the Yea River to the Yea Water Treatment Plant at a rate of up to 2.6 ML/day. Following treatment, water is stored in a 3ML clear water storage tank prior to distribution to customers. A locality plan is shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24 Yea Locality Plan

Towns in this DRM

166 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Yea Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

2 OVERALL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Supply Context

Goulburn Valley Water’s entitlement to water is specified in the Bulk Entitlement (Yea) Conversion Order 1997. The annual volume which can be diverted is 438 ML at a maximum daily rate of 3.6 ML/day. GVW is entitled to take 50% of the daily streamflow upstream of the offtake at streamflows below 7.2 ML/d and a maximum of 3.6 ML/d at streamflows above 7.2 ML/d. The bulk entitlement for this system and any amendments can be obtained from the Victorian Water Register (http://waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-entitlements/bulk-entitlements).

2.2 Consumption

Annual raw water consumption volumes recorded since 2006/07 are listed in Table 72. The town comprises mainly residential properties with no significant industry. GVW introduced permanent water saving measures on 5 December 2007 (GVW, 2007b), which prohibit some activities that were previously considered to be unrestricted.

Table 72 Yea System Annual Raw Water Consumption Volumes (ML)

Year Annual Consumption (ML) 2006/07 205 2007/08 227 2008/09 264 2009/10 233 2010/11 175 2011/12 177 2012/13 227 2013/14 235 2014/15 214 2015/16 230

The level of diversion assumed for the life of the current version of the Drought Preparedness Plan is set for the year 2022/23 level of development. The typical dry year diversion at this level of development was estimated to be 264 ML/yr. This figure is based on the 2022/23 level of development demand during a repeat of the climate of the dry year 2006/07. The typical dry year diversion is shown in Table 73. The unrestrictable diversion of 145 ML/yr is assumed to be 85% of the average diversion in the three months of the year with the lowest average water diversion.

167 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Yea Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Table 73 Average Monthly Diversions for a Typical Dry Year at 2022/23 Level of Development Month 2022/23 Typical Dry Year Unrestrictable Restrictable Average Monthly Demand Demand (ML/mth) Demand (ML/mth) (ML/mth) July 14.2 12.1 2.2 August 15.6 12.1 3.5 September 15.7 12.1 3.6 October 20.7 12.1 8.6 November 24.9 12.1 12.8 December 33.4 12.1 21.3 January 34.9 12.1 22.8 February 31.0 12.1 18.9 March 23.9 12.1 11.8 April 21.7 12.1 9.6 May 14.9 12.1 2.9 June 13.5 12.1 1.4 TOTAL 264 ML/yr 145 ML/yr 120 ML/yr

2.3 Goals

The overall objective for drought response planning is as follows:

To ensure a systematic, timely and efficient response to drought to minimise its impacts on consumers by:

 Ensuring timely warning of any water shortages which might occur during future drought events and the preparedness to deal with such shortages when they occur; and

 Identifying any long term planning issues in the process of preparing the Drought Preparedness Plan that should be considered in GVW’s long-term plans.

The above objective gives the Drought Preparedness Plan broad direction and purpose.

In terms of more specific objectives, the following aims were developed:

Short Term To ensure that:

 The Drought Preparedness Plan identifies a clear process for coping with a drought which must include appropriate triggers to set in progress specific actions; and

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 The Drought Preparedness Plan is reviewed at regular intervals to take into account additional information and after a drought, to take account of the practical experience.

Long Term

To ensure that:

 The level of service provided satisfies the requirements of GVW and its customers; and

 GVW systematically monitors changes to demand levels and patterns and customer expectations regarding levels of service.

2.4 Review of Past Drought Experience

Restrictions in the Yea system have typically been in response to generally dry conditions in the region and were not a reflection of stream flows falling below the diversion limit.

Stage 1 restrictions (of 4 stages) were introduced on 13 December 2006 and increased to Stage 3 restrictions on 1 July 2007. Restrictions were eased to Stage 2 on 7 September 2007 and Stage 1 on 1 October 2007. Stage 1 restrictions were lifted and Permanent Water Saving Rules introduced in November 2009, and are still currently in effect.

2.5 Reliability of Supply

Water for the township of Yea is diverted via pump from the Yea River. Streamflow analysis shows that historically, flows have been sustained well above the minimum flow thresholds that would constrain GVW’s ability to divert. Reductions in streamflow resulting from bushfire impacted catchments and climate change would need to be well above expected ranges (DSE, 2011 and SKM, 2009), these being of the order of 20%- 30% reductions by 2065. The management of the accumulation of silt at the diversion inlet is the main risk to water supply which has been identified.

2.6 Non-Drought Related Water Shortage

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2.7 Priority Open Spaces/Alternative Water Sources

2.8 Exemptions

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3 DROUGHT RESPONSE OPTIONS

3.1 Summary of Options

The primary options in the DPP can be considered as either demand side options or supply side options. The options which are considered appropriate to the Yea water supply system are:

Demand Side Options  Pressure and loss reduction  Advertising campaign to encourage water conservation (voluntary restrictions);  Staged restrictions on water use in accordance with By-Law 512 (Appendix A).  Water efficiency objectives;

Supply Side Options  Groundwater supply;  Use of reclaimed water;  Purchase of entitlements from irrigators; and  Ministerial qualification of rights.

3.2 Demand Side Options

Water Efficiency Objectives Refer to GVW Urban Water Strategy Section 4.11

Imposition of Staged Restrictions GVW has a four stage restriction By-Law. This targets discretionary (or restrictable) use, whilst protecting industrial and in-house use. While estimates of average savings in restrictable demand are no longer included in the new water restriction By-Law 512, previous by-laws have included estimated savings for each level of restrictions, shown in Table 74. This information can be combined with the monthly demands in Table 73 to estimate the reduction in total demand for a given month of the year at the 2022/23 level of development.

Table 74 Reduction in Restrictable Demand % Reduction in Restriction Stage Restrictable Demand 1 14% 2 44% 3 67% 4 98%

3.3 Supply Side Options

Reclaimed Water Reclaimed water from the Yea wastewater management facility could possibly be used for certain activities not requiring potable water. This could include road works. EPA approval is required for these applications. Lead times would need to be further investigated for this option. 171 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Yea Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

Use of Groundwater Groundwater could be available from some aquifers in the Yea area, and it could be used to supplement potable supplies. Treatment to a potable standard could also be investigated. Goulburn-Murray Water advise in their application kits for transferring a groundwater licence that the time for processing applications may be up to four weeks for temporary transfers and 10-12 weeks for permanent transfers (G-MW, 2009a,b). Applications for a new groundwater licence require up to 8 weeks to process (G-MW, 2009d).

Surface Supply Sources A scour valve on the Melbourne Water pipeline between the Goulburn River and Sugarloaf Reservoir is located approximately 200 metres from the existing Yea raw water pump station. Goulburn Valley Water will be seeking to make arrangements with Melbourne Water for access to water for Yea from the Sugarloaf pipeline in an emergency event

Purchase from Irrigators There are a number of private diverters on the Yea River upstream of GVW’s offtake. GVW could potentially temporarily purchase entitlements from private diverters, however the benefit of such a purchase is considered negligible. This is because irrigators are already likely to be on bans at times when GVW’s entitlement is insufficient to meet supply. The rules for irrigation restrictions will be contained within the Yea River Streamflow Management Plan. GVW’s existing entitlement, which allows diversions at all flows, is likely to be sufficient to meet demands without additional entitlement transfers, provided that there is flow in the river.

Ministerial Qualification of Rights If streamflows in the Yea River dropped below 7.2 ML/d, a request can be made to the Minister under Section 33AAA of the Water Act 1989 to allow GVW to divert more than 50% of the flow to maintain essential supply to the town. The need for such a qualification is unlikely, because GVW already has access to 50% of the flow at low flows, which should be sufficient to meet restricted demands. Such an application might only be granted under extreme circumstances where the Minister has declared that a water shortage exists. GVW would need to demonstrate that it had made reasonable efforts to prevent this water shortage, including consideration of the other supply enhancement options above. This option is regarded as a last resort when other demand reduction or supply enhancement options are unviable.

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4 DROUGHT RESPONSE ACTION PLAN

The operational modes are informed by Drought Response Triggers. Further information on the Drought Response Triggers and operational modes are provided in the Sections below.

4.1 Drought Response Triggers

An early warning will be diversion problems because existing works will experience difficulties well before any restriction of diversion rates is required. In a severe drought, it is expected that temporary diversion works, a sheet pile or sandbag weir, would be required to maintain supply and measure passing flows.

Triggers for action during low flow periods are shown in Table 75. In the absence of gauged data upstream of the offtake, streamflows upstream of the offtake can be estimated using the following relationship:

Flow u/s Offtake (ML/d) = 1.036*[(2.426*Q405205)+(1.297*Q405217)]

Where: Q405205 is the streamflow at gauge 405205 on the Murrindindi River at Colwells in ML/d; and

Q405217 is the streamflow at gauge 405217 on the Yea River at Devlins Bridge in ML/d.

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Table 75 Yea Water Supply System Drought Response Triggers

Action to be taken if 3 day rolling average streamflow is less than the Value indicated at any time 3 day rolling Stage of Approximate 3 day rolling Peak monthly average restriction time until next average demand streamflow stage of allowable (ML/d)* upstream of restriction diversion offtake (ML/d) (days)# (ML/d) >10 None n/a 3.6 1.4 10 1 22 3.6 1.3 8 2 28 3.6 0.9 6 3 18 3.0 0.8 5 4 >50 2.5 0.4 0.8 Emergency n/a 0.4 0.4 measures *Peak daily and peak weekly demands are likely to be higher than this value #Based on master recession curve for flows above 50 ML/d – actual behaviour at flows below 10 ML/d likely to vary from this and the time between stages of restriction may be shorter. All estimates are approximate only, particularly between Stage 4 and emergency measures.

If the flow in the Yea River upstream of the offtake rises above 18 ML/d, then based on the recession curve behaviour of the stream, the Stage 1 trigger would not be expected to be reached again within 8 weeks. No restrictions should be lifted until the flow returns to above 18 ML/d.

The bulk entitlement for Yea (438 ML/yr) is well in excess of the dry year demand of 264 ML/yr, so it is considered that there is a negligible likelihood of the annual bulk entitlement being exceeded because of higher demands during drought. Hence for this supply system, triggers based on remaining entitlement for the year have not been set.

4.2 Pre-Drought Phase Actions – General Monitoring

General monitoring is a mode of preparation for future drought and continual evaluating to enable periods of water scarcity to be identified early.

Annually 1) Establish and review monitoring procedures which should include:

 Accurate measurement of extraction volumes on a daily, monthly and annual basis; 174 GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION Yea Water Supply System Drought Preparedness Plan

 Obtaining information on the behaviour of the Yea River at Devlins Bridge (405217) and the Murrindindi River at Colwells (405205); and

 Estimating likely streamflow at the Yea offtake based on the relationship presented under the drought triggers section of this Plan.

Short to Medium Term 4) Prepare brochures and information suitable for dissemination to consumers:

 Pre-drought; and

 During drought (draft information suitable for quick printing);

5) Take some spot streamflow readings upstream of the Yea River offtake during low flow conditions to confirm or amend the transposition of streamflows from upstream gauges. One spot reading taken by Thiess in 2003 suggests that the transposition method may overestimate streamflows upstream of the offtake (SKM, 2009).

Long Term 6) Develop a water carting strategy in the future, if required;

7) Investigate the potential for groundwater as an emergency supply in future if required;

8) Investigate purchasing more water allocation in future, if required; and

9) Develop arrangements with Melbourne Water for emergency access to water from the Sugarloaf pipeline, if required.

Table 76 indicates what steps should be taken given the likelihood of action needing to be applied .

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Table 76 Action Plan for General Awareness mode Action Trigger Response Comments 1. Reconvene the Drought Response Monitoring Committee. Action 1 Low likelihood that streamflow will fall It would be appropriate to review below drought response trigger 2. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a six month basis. advertising material on drought, restrictions etc in preparation for prompt 3. Initiate media campaign requesting voluntary reduction in water use, Action 2 Moderate likelihood that streamflow printing and distribution, if required. including basis for action. will fall below drought response trigger 4. Make available to consumers information on how to reduce water consumption. 5. Nominate a Drought Co-ordinator and allocate staff to deal with media and consumer enquiries. 6. Update Annual Water Outlooks on a monthly basis. 7. Alert public to the imminent water shortages and possible need for Action 3 High likelihood that streamflow will fall restrictions in the future. below drought response trigger 8. Monitor estimated streamflows upstream of offtake and introduce temporary streamflow monitoring arrangements upstream of the offtake when estimated flows approach Stage 1 trigger. 9. Promote “voluntary restrictions” via media advertising campaigns to inform consumers about water conservation programs.

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4.3 Drought Phase Actions – Drought Response Plan

The Drought Response Plan (DRP) meets the requirements of the Statement of Obligations and GVW Water Restriction By-Law.

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Table 77 Action Plan for Drought Response Mode Action Trigger Response Comments 10. Consider the implementation of Stage 1 restrictions. Action 4 Streamflow falls below the The decision on the appropriate stage of Stage 1 Drought Response 11. Undertake advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details restriction will depend on the Trigger of the restrictions. circumstances at the time, particularly any forecasts by the system authority (GMW) 12. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. as to prospects for the rest of season. 13. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 14. Consider the implementation of Stage 2 restrictions. Action 5 Streamflow falls below the Stage 2 Drought Response 15. Continue advertising campaign to ensure consumers understand the details of Trigger the restrictions. 16. Encourage customers to advise Goulburn Valley Water of breaches of water restrictions. 17. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 18. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 19. Consider the implementation of Stage 3 restrictions. Action 6 Streamflow falls below the Stage 3 Drought Response 20. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of Trigger restriction. 21. Continue to monitor climate and system to determine impact of restrictions. 22. Check availability of (or prepare if necessary) media material suitable for use if the next stage of restriction is required. 23. Identify and plan for implementation of emergency options such as water carting.

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24. Consider the implementation of Stage 4 restrictions. Action 7 Streamflow falls below the Level of restriction is such that Stage 4 Drought Response 25. Continue advertising campaign to ensure customers understand the details of consideration of supply enhancement Trigger restriction. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the 26. Continue to monitor climatic variables and system to determine impact of light of the particular circumstances. restrictions. 27. Prepare media material appropriate for emergency conditions, if necessary. 28. Make final arrangements for emergency measures such as water carting. 29. Undertake advertising campaign to limit in-house water usage to essential use Action 8 Streamflow falls below the Level of restriction is such that only. emergency restriction rule consideration of supply enhancement value 30. If required implement emergency supply measures. measures is required. Action on such measures needs to be considered in the light of the particular circumstances.

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4.4 Post-Drought Actions

Actions to be taken after a drought has occurred are summarised in Table 78.

Table 78 Post-drought Action

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REFERENCES

DELWP (2017) Guidelines for the Development of Urban Water Strategies and the Melbourne Water System Strategy (FINAL), Prepared by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, February

Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) (2009) Towns in Time. Accessed 11/5/09 from http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/dsenres.nsf/LinkView/E05D934749B13CE2CA256D3B 0005539F5D8F38B915AF5AA1CA256D1A0022BDE9.

GHD (2012) Water Supply Demand Strategy 2011 – 2060: Water Resource Modelling Part B Baseline Yield and Reliability Scenario Modelling. Prepared for Goulburn Valley Water. February 2012.

GHD (2017a) Urban Water Strategy 2016 – 2065: Water Resource Modelling Part A Update of System REALM Models and Hydrologic Datasets. Prepared for Goulburn Valley Water. January 2017.

GHD (2017b) Urban Water Strategy 2016 – 2065: Water Resource Modelling Part B Baseline Yield and Reliability Scenario Modelling. Prepared for Goulburn Valley Water. January 2017.

Goulburn-Murray Water (2009a) Application Kit for Temporary Transfer of a Groundwater Licence. Accessed 11/5/09 from http://www.g-mwater.com.au.

Goulburn-Murray Water (2009b) Application Kit for a Groundwater Licence Transfer. Accessed 11/5/09 from http://www.g-mwater.com.au.

Goulburn-Murray Water (2009c) Application Kit for a Groundwater Licence. Accessed 11/5/09 from http://www.g-mwater.com.au.

Goulburn-Murray Water (2009d) Application Kit for a Temporary Transfer of a Surface Water Licence. Accessed 11/5/09 from http://www.g-mwater.com.au.

GVW (2007b) Permanent Water Savings Plan for Goulburn Valley Water. Adopted 5th December 2007.

SKM (2009) Goulburn Valley Water Drought Response Plan Update Preliminary Analysis of 2009 Bushfire Impacts, Final, July.

GOULBURN VALLEY REGION WATER CORPORATION

Drought Response Manual for Unregulated River Supply Systems

Appendix A – Water Restriction By-Law 512

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