Upper Ovens River Water Supply Protection Area Water Management Plan August 2011 Goulburn-Murray Water 40 Casey St, Tatura PO Box 165 Tatura Victoria 3616 Telephone 1800 013 357 www.g-mwater.com.au Disclaimer: This publication may be of assistance to you but Goulburn-Murray Water and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Upper Ovens River Water Supply Protection Area Upper Ovens River Water Supply Protection Area Water Management Plan August 2011 i Water Management Plan Upper Ovens River Water Supply Protection Area TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF PRESCRIPTIONS ...................................................................................................................... iv PLAN APPROVAL .................................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... vi DEFINITIONS AND TERMS ................................................................................................................... viii 1 THE PROTECTION AREA ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Integrated management ....................................................................................................................... 1 2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLAN ................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 What is a Management Plan? .............................................................................................................. 3 2.2 Why the Ovens River? .......................................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Who develops a Water Management Plan? ......................................................................................... 3 2.4 Consultation and information available during the development of the Plan ....................................... 3 2.5 Review by Independent Technical Audit Panel .................................................................................... 3 2.6 Approval of the Draft Plan .................................................................................................................... 3 3 OBJECT OF THE MANAGEMENT PLAN ................................................................................................. 5 4 ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT ............................................................................................... 5 5 WATER RESOURCES ............................................................................................................................... 5 5.1 Surface water resources ....................................................................................................................... 5 5.2 Groundwater resources ........................................................................................................................ 6 5.2.1 Geology ........................................................................................................................................ 6 5.2.2 Groundwater aquifers .................................................................................................................. 8 5.2.3 Fractured rock aquifer .................................................................................................................. 8 5.2.4 Unconsolidated sedimentary aquifer ........................................................................................... 8 5.3 Groundwater and surface water processes .......................................................................................... 8 5.3.1 Catchment scale interactions ....................................................................................................... 8 5.3.2 Groundwater and surface water interactions within the fractured rock aquifer ........................... 9 5.3.3 Groundwater and surface water interactions within the unconsolidated sedimentary aquifer .... 9 6 WATER ENTITLEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 11 6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 11 6.2 Surface water entitlements ................................................................................................................. 12 6.2.1 Licences ..................................................................................................................................... 12 6.2.2 Unlicensed domestic and stock rights ....................................................................................... 15 6.2.3 Urban bulk entitlements ............................................................................................................. 15 6.3 Groundwater entitlements .................................................................................................................. 15 6.3.1 Licences ..................................................................................................................................... 15 6.3.2 Unlicensed domestic and stock entitlements ............................................................................. 17 7 WATER USE ............................................................................................................................................. 17 7.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 17 7.2 Irrigation and commercial use ............................................................................................................ 17 7.3 Domestic and stock use ..................................................................................................................... 19 7.3.1 Surface water ............................................................................................................................. 19 7.3.2 Groundwater .............................................................................................................................. 19 7.3.3 Urban use................................................................................................................................... 19 7.4 Other uses .......................................................................................................................................... 19 8 THE ENVIRONMENTAL WATER RESERVE .......................................................................................... 19 8.1 General Condition of the Catchment .................................................................................................. 19 8.2 Legislative Provisions ......................................................................................................................... 20 8.3 Environmental flow requirements ....................................................................................................... 20 9 IMPACTS OF THE TAKE AND USE OF WATER ................................................................................... 22 9.1 Impacts of the take and use of surface water ..................................................................................... 22 9.1.1 Winter-take and registration licences ......................................................................................... 22 9.2 Impacts of the take and use of groundwater ...................................................................................... 23 ii Water Management Plan Upper Ovens River Water Supply Protection Area 9.2.1 Impacts of taking groundwater from the fractured rock aquifer ................................................. 23 9.2.2 Impacts of taking groundwater from the unconsolidated sedimentary aquifer .......................... 23 9.2.3 Impacts of taking groundwater on groundwater dependant ecosystems .................................. 25 9.3 Impacts of taking water for domestic and stock use ........................................................................... 25 10 WATER SHARING BETWEEN USERS ................................................................................................... 25 10.1 Meeting the object of the management plan ...................................................................................... 25 10.2 Sharing summer low flow ................................................................................................................... 26 11 MANAGEMENT ZONES ........................................................................................................................... 29 11.1 The two management zones for groundwater and surface water ...................................................... 29 11.2 Defining management