The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) has found that the compliance with new metering obligations required of water users has been unacceptably low.
Chief Regulatory Officer for NRAR, Grant Barnes (pictured) said that the regulator’s initial assessment of water users with surface water pumps 500mm or larger revealed that two-thirds of the owners had not taken action to install accurate, tamper-proof or approved meters.
“This means that water extracted by two-thirds of these pumps is not being recorded to the standard required by law,” Mr Barnes said.
“These initial results are concerning,” he said.
“Water users who own a third of these pumps are on the path to compliance, some are almost there while others have a way to go.”
Mr Barnes said NRAR was now focussing on the water users who hadn’t made genuine efforts to comply with the water metering rules.
He said there were 384 entities that held 527 approvals for 1,126 surface water pumps which had been required to comply with the new regulation since 1 December last year.
He said that throughout April and May, NRAR would contact water users to determine where they were “on the path to compliance” and to understand what legitimate barriers existed.
Mr Barnes said the Regulator had been told about barriers which interfered with water users’ ability to comply with the new regulations.
“We will confirm what legitimate barriers exist when we get out on farm,” he said.
“We understand the path to compliance is not always linear, but more than four months have passed since the deadline and those who have not made reasonable efforts to comply can expect strong action to be taken against them,” the Chief Regulatory Officer said.
