Water - Queensland - Water Resources Overview

Surface and Groundwater Management, Availability, Allocation and Efficiency of Use
State of Queensland Water Resources Overview

Introduction

Water is a precious commodity. The Queensland Department of Natural Resources has the responsibility of managing water to ensure the present and future rural, industrial and urban needs of Queenslanders are met whilst ensuring our river and groundwater systems remain healthy. This includes developing new water industry policies to comply with state and national agreements, facilitating community catchment management and planning for adequate supplies of water to meet the economic growth of Queensland.

It also means implementing the Government's program to develop an adequate, cost-effective and well-managed water infrastructure, to supply bulk water, distribute water for irrigation and reduce the effects of flooding through the development and implementation of water management schemes and stormwater drainage.

Ongoing planning and development of new water infrastructure will support continued economic growth and enhancement of community lifestyles. The Department is undertaking a major water infrastructure planning and development program in consultation with our clients. This will result in the supply of additional water for rural, industrial and urban use, improved groundwater management, increased water use efficiency, wastewater reuse, water quality monitoring and enhanced environmental management of waterways.

Enhanced environmental management of waterways is affected by regulating water use, environmental impact appraisals and management plans, water works licensing and the issuing of sand and gravel permits.

The Water Allocation and Management Plans (WAMPS) will have a primary role in managing the water resources of the State. A WAMP determines the amount of water available for use and the amount of water that must be left in the system for the environment.

The Queensland Wastewater Reuse Strategy provides a framework for the reuse of wastewater. The project was developed in partnership with many community groups and will address specific policies, guidelines and community education programs for the safe use of reclaimed water.

Monitoring the safety of dams to ensure the highest structural soundness and safety of large water storages and mine tailings dams, is another key role for the Department.

Within this Department the state water infrastructure is managed by the commercial operator, State Water Projects, through three separate regional offices. It supplies more than 6300 farms and 220000 hectares of land with irrigation water. More than 54 towns and 16 mining/industrial enterprises are provided with bulk water.

Legislative Framework

The Water Resources Act (1989) is the primary legislation under which water is currently allocated and managed in Queensland. The Water Resources Act has a number of deficiencies as follows:

It does not explicitly provide for the protection of surface flows and groundwater levels to protect the environment. Although policies are adopted at an administrative level in this regard, there is no explicit head of power to provide for the environment.
It does not adequately provide for a planned base for the making of water allocation and management decisions. Rather, it provides for an incremental system of decision making under which the security of supply for existing water users can be progressively eroded over time.
It is directed at the construction and authorisation of works for water supply with the allocation and management of water being a somewhat incidental matter. It fails therefore to separate development issues from resource allocation issues.
It ties water to land. This means in order to obtain water it is often necessary to purchase additional land to which water is attached.
It provides no power for the State to manage the sharing of overland flow. Under modern farming practice extensive diversion of overland flow is taking place in some parts of the State which could place at risk the health of watercourses.
It fails to properly recognise and separate the roles of water resource management, water infrastructure development, and water supply scheme operation.

New legislation is being prepared to address these issues. A Draft Water (Allocation and Management) Bill was released for public consultation in December 1999. It is due to be introduced to the Parliament in July 2000. The features of the Bill are as follows:

It provides for the sustainable management and allocation of water resources in accordance with the principles of ecologically sustainable development.
It provides for allocation and management decisions to be made in accordance with plans prepared through consultative processes.
It establishes the role of the water resource regulator separate from the roles of infrastructure development and water supply scheme operator. It provides for the State to be subject to the same regulatory framework as the private sector in the construction of works and the operation of water supply schemes.
It provides water allocation decision to be made under the Bill, but for decisions on works approvals to be made under the Integrated Development Approval System within the Integrated Planning Act.
It provides for the progressive replacement of water licences which attach to land, with tradeable water allocations which do not attach to land, which are well specified and which have improved security.

Under the new system the taking of water from watercourses, lakes and springs or the taking of artesian groundwater will need approval. The taking of overland flow or subartesian groundwater will need approval only if a Water Resource Plan declares that an approval is required. Such declaration would be made where a water resource is under threat from over development.

COAG Compliance

The Queensland water industry is currently undergoing a significant reform process. One component of this process relates to the COAG program of reform for the urban and rural water industries. The Queensland Government has agreed to implement the Competition Principles Agreement, which covers issues of generic application to industries (structural reform, competitive neutrality, prices oversight), as well as the COAG Water Resource Policy, which deals specifically with, water issues. The COAG Water Resource Policy covers matters such as institutional reform of service provision, cost recovery targets for water pricing, transferable water entitlements and environmental issues.

Quite apart from the Queensland Government's commitments under the COAG Agreements, the reforms are being undertaken on the basis that they provide a framework for achieving an economically efficient and sustainable Queensland water industry with appropriate market signals and regulatory arrangements for sustainable resource use.

Reform of the water industry includes:

The adoption of pricing regimes based on the principles of consumption-based pricing, full cost recovery and, desirably, the removal of cross-subsidies which are not consistent with the efficient an effective service, use and provision. Where cross-subsidies continue to exist, they will be transparently reported;
Institutional separation of the roles of water resource management, standard setting and regulatory enforcement and service provision, as far as possible. The benefits of institutional separation arise from ensuring that there is clear differentiation between commercial objectives, regulatory objectives and community service obligations;
Service delivery organisations, particularly in metropolitan areas, having a commercial focus (for example, through commercialisation or corporatisation). A commercial focus for water providers will encourage investment to be demand-driven and provided at minimum cost; and
Constituents being given a greater degree of responsibility in the management of irrigation areas - for example, through operational responsibility being devolved to local bodies subject to appropriate regulatory frameworks being established.

Further, the water reform program seeks to improve water allocation or entitlements system by requiring:

Introduction of comprehensive systems of water allocations or entitlements backed by clear specification of entitlements, separate from land title; and
That trading arrangements in water allocations or entitlements be implemented once the entitlements have been settled. This includes the development of necessary institutional arrangements, from a natural resource management perspective, to facilitate trade in water.

Water Industry Structure

Historically water has been provided for domestic purposes, industrial consumers and irrigators by State and local government owned entities. Governments regulated these activities through direct ownership and control of water service provision. Urban water services are provided primarily by local governments and by four urban water boards (Gladstone, Townsville-Thuringowa, South-East Queensland and Mt Isa Water Boards). Water is also provided to eight irrigation areas (Mareeba Dimbulah, Burdekin, Eton, Dawson Valley, Emerald, Bundaberg, Lower Mary, St. George) and twenty-eight water supply projects.

However, institutional reforms currently occurring within Queensland water industry, there is increasing private sector involvement in the industry and a stronger emphasis on water service providers responding to customer expectations and needs.

Surface Water Resource

Reporting Units

For this Audit, the basins as designated by the Australian Water Resources Council (AWRC) have generally been adopted as a reporting unit in Queensland. A number of these basins have been further subdivided to smaller areas which reflect operational areas within the basin. All reporting units are referred to as Surface Water Management Areas (SWMA's). A total of 99 SWMA's have been defined.

Hydrology

The mean annual streamflow of the State as determined by this study is 160630 GL.

River flows in Queensland show distinct variations with time, with streamflows showing both a seasonal pattern and substantial year to year variability in discharge. There is also a distinct variability of discharge with location that reflects the variability of rainfall across the state. The El Nino effect has significant influence on the long-term variability rainfall within the State.

Pie chart of Mean Annual Flow, Queensland

The wet season in Queensland generally occurs in the summer months and winter is generally significantly drier.

Streams in the west of the State and around the Gulf of Carpentaria frequently cease to flow for 6 months of the year. Streams on the eastern coast of Queensland generally have flow all year but show distinct seasonal variation.

Available Resource

The total annual divertible surface water resource was not determined for Queensland. Because of the seasonal and annual variability of stream flows in the State, the divertible resource is very dependent on the pattern of use and the location of use.

Water Allocation and Management Plans (WAMP's) and Water Management Plans (WMP's) are currently being developed for many catchments throughout the state. Environmental strategies are being developed as part of these plans. The plans will guide the future development of the catchments.

Developed Use and Allocation

The volume of water allocated for use in Queensland is 3072000 ML annually. In addition to this considerable water is extracted by water harvesting.

Allocations are generally made in three ways.

Water on regulated streams is allocated on a volumetric basis.
Water on unregulated streams is allocated on a right to irrigate a defined area.
Water Harvesting is regulated by defined streamflow conditions.

Water use on regulated streams and for some water harvesting is metered. All other water use and allocations have been estimated.

Some major water users have their allocations defined by an Order in Council or a Government act.

The major water users in the State are on rivers flowing to the eastern coast. There is considerable water use in the Condamine and Border Rivers Basins, which flow into the Murray Darling Division. The State Government has developed a number of major irrigation areas throughout the State.

Although there is a high mean annual flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria, there is very little use due to the isolation of this region.

Pie Chart of Water Use by Division, Queensland

Water Supply Systems

Urban water services are provided primarily by local governments and four urban water boards (Gladstone, Townsville-Thuringowa, South-East Queensland and Mt Isa Water Boards).

Water is also provided to eight irrigation areas (Mareeba Dimbulah, Burdekin, Eton, Dawson Valley, Emerald, Bundaberg, Lower Mary, St. George) and twenty eight water supply projects (Bowen-Broken Rivers, Mt Isa Dams, Eungella Dam And Pipeline, Pioneer River, Proserpine River, Riverside Pipeline, Callide Valley, Blackwater Pipeline, Awoonga-Callide Pipeline, Fitzroy Barrage, Stanwell Pipeline, Boyne River, Barker-Barambah, Mary Valley, Upper Burnett, Three Moon Creek, Tarong Pipeline, Cressbrook Creek, Logan River, Lower Lockyer Valley, Central Lockyer Valley, Warrill Valley, Chinchilla Weir, Dumeresq River, MacIntyre Brook, Maranoa River, Upper Condamine).

There are 183 key storage locations across the State. These represent a total capacity of 13389 GL for Queensland. This does not include privately owned offstream storage sites used for water harvesting. Water harvesting storages in Queensland vary considerably in size and the largest storage constructed to date is 370000ML. In western areas considerable water is harvested from the floodplains during floods.

Categorisation

Categorisation was not carried out for the Queensland SWMA's. Water Allocation and Management Plans (WAMP's) and Water Management Plans (WMP's) are currently being prepared for many areas in Queensland. The studies for these plans will identify areas in which the water resources are available for further development and areas which are stressed.