Community comment on ground water plan

News release
02 July 2015

The Draft Water Allocation Plan for the Southern Basins and the Musgrave Prescribed Wells Areas is another step closer to being finalised today.

After a three-week extension the Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Board closed the formal public submission period on 12 June.

Presiding member of the Board, Ms Diana Laube expressed her thanks to the many dedicated community members who contributed during the consultation period.

“The Board has been really pleased with the community input throughout the consultation,” Ms Laube said.

“The excellent comments and feedback we received in the engagement sessions culminated in 19 very useful submissions.

“Everyone is to be thanked for their time and effort in preparing these, which are now being collated and forwarded to Water Allocation Plan (WAP) specialists.”

Manager of Natural Resources Eyre Peninsula, Mr Jonathan Clark said the submissions are now under review.

“Following our consideration of the submissions and feedback from the community, and the Boards endorsement of the amended draft WAP, we’ll be again catching up with our key stakeholders to show how comments have helped shape the new plan,” Mr Clark said.

“We expect this to be a few months away at this stage, due largely to the body of work required.

“Taking on board the comments from community has helped us understand the importance of acknowledging the history of water use and management, ensuring there is adequate and accountable monitoring of our resources and that there are adequate provisions in place for the protection of important ecosystems.”

To keep in touch with developments on the Water Allocation Plan at: www.environment.sa.gov.au/haveyoursay/eyre-peninsula-wap-consultation