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Water Resource Plan (WRP)
The purposes of the Water Resource Plan (WRP) are as follows:
- to define the availability of water in the plan area;
- to provide a framework for sustainably managing water and
the taking of water;
to identify priorities and mechanisms for dealing with future
water requirements;
- to provide a framework for establishing water allocations;
- to provide a framework for reversing, where practicable,
degradation that has occurred in natural ecosystems, including
for example, stressed rivers.
General outcomes of the WRP
Water is to be managed and allocated:
- to ensure a reliable and secure supply of water from Awoonga
Dam during the time this plan is in force; and
- to ensure the supply of regulated water in the area downstream
of Awoonga Dam for agriculture and other small scale uses;
and
- to allow water to be taken upstream of Awoonga Dam full
supply level or from Awoonga Dam for:
- agriculture and other small scale uses; and
- urban needs; and
- to protect the probability of being able
to obtain water under a water allocation.
Ecological outcomes
of the WRP
River flows are to be managed:
1. to maintain existing habitats that sustain
native plants and animals:
- associated with watercourses, waterholes and
riparian zones upstream of Awoonga Dam full supply level; or
- dependant on pool and associated riparian
habitat in the freshwater reach downstream of Awoonga Dam;
and
2. to provide water for fine sediment removal and
long term water quality suitable for:
- riverine ecosystems upstream of Awoonga Dam
full supply level;
- ecosystems downstream of Awoonga Dam;
- to allow movement by marine and estuarine fish over or
around the weir at Boyne River AMTD 17.2 km;
- to provide water to stimulate reproductive
processes for estuarine animals downstream of Awoonga Dam;
- to provide water for delivery of catchment based nutrients
from upstream of Awoonga Dam to the riverine and estuarine
reaches downstream of the dam;
- to allow river forming flows upstream of
Awoonga Dam full supply level and in the riverine and estuarine
reaches downstream of the dam; and
- to allow for an increase in the frequency and duration
of marine conditions in the estuarine reach downstream of Awoonga
Dam leading to a shift towards plant and animal species that
favour or tolerate the increase.
Resource Operations Plan (ROP)
The Water Resource Plan incorporated several broad strategies
to advance sustainable development and management of water within
the Boyne River Basin.
Putting these strategies into action is a key role of the Resource
Operations Plan. The draft Resource Operations Plan was modified
where practicable, to accommodate comments received. The final
Resource Operations Plan covers a range of matters including:
- how new water entitlements will be made
available;
- how existing entitlements will be amended;
- how the raised Awoonga Dam will be operated; and
- how monitoring practices for water and natural ecosystems
will be addressed.
The ROP puts the strategic framework specified through the Water
Resource Plan into operation. It is by managing water and water
infrastructure in accordance with the ROP that the outcomes of
the Water Resource Plan will be achieved.
Resource Operations
Licence (ROL)
The Resource Operations Licence entitles the Gladstone Area
Water Board to extract a certain amount of water from Awoonga
Dam on the Boyne River.
Water allocation is linked to an estimate of the historic reliability
of supply, and are based on the recorded and simulated stream
flow in the Boyne River for the period from 1891 to 1997.
Environmental Releases
As part of the Resource Operations Licence, GAWB complies with
the Boyne River Basin ROP which requires that GAWB carry out
environmental releases in the form of base flows and also
trigger flows. Base flows are intended to maintain the environment
downstream of the dam.
Releases do not occur when the water level in Awoonga
Dam is below 30m, therefore releases will cease if there is limited
inflow into the dam and the level falls below 30m.
Click here to view the
Boyne River Basin Resource Operations Plan (ROP)
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