Water Allocation Plan finalised

The new Water Allocation Plan for the Southern Basins and the Musgrave Prescribed Wells Areas, Eyre Peninsula has been adopted by the State Government.The plan was endorsed on the 28th June 2016.

The new Plan, which replaces the existing plans released in 2000, manages the extraction of underground water from wells within these two prescribed wells areas located between Coffin Bay and Port Lincoln on Southern Eyre Peninsula and between Lock and Elliston on western Eyre Peninsula.

Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources Management Board Presiding Member Diana Laube said it is great to be in a position to implement the new plan after many years of hard work by the Board, the Department and the community.

“The strengths of this new plan comes from its balanced consideration of the environmental, economic and social needs, the expanded scientific knowledge that supports it and the important input from the community who helped shape the final document,” she said.

“For the environment this means that those ecosystems that rely on groundwater have been identified in the Plan. We now have a more immediate method of managing periods of poor recharge which we are confident will further protect the resource. In addition, our document is the first one to include an instrument for license holders to trade their groundwater entitlement,” said Ms Laube.

Natural Resources Eyre Peninsula Regional Director Jonathan Clark said the plan is based on a significant amount of new science and pioneering policy development and paves the way for the improved management of these important water resources.

The Plan is supported by a number of scientific documents and an accompanying Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) plan.

For more information on the Water Allocation Plan for the Southern Basins and the Musgrave Prescribed Wells Areas please visit: www.landscape.sa.gov.au/ep