Environmental water management in NSW

Planned environmental water (PEW) is water committed for ecosystem health or other environmental purposes through rules in surface and groundwater sharing plans.

Planned environmental water is also known as rules-based environmental water and can be ‘discretionary’ or ‘non-discretionary’. Discretionary planned environmental water can be ordered by environmental water managers, while non-discretionary is scheduled for delivery or protection in accordance with the rules set out in the water sharing plan.

Examples of planned environmental water include:

1. Water remaining in the water source after water-sharing – each surface and groundwater sharing plan includes a long-term average annual extraction limit (LTAAEL) to ensure that on average, a portion of the resource remains in the water source for environmental purposes and other downstream uses.
2. Environmental water allowances – several surface water sharing plans set aside water in storages that can be used at the discretion of environmental water managers for specific environmental purposes, such as for suppressing blue-green algae, reducing salinity and supporting bird breeding or fish spawning events (see the Planned environmental water dashboard for environmental water allowance accounts)
3. End-of-system flows – some regulated river systems require releases of water from storages to maintain a specific flow rate at the end of the system.
4. Very low flows - some unregulated water sources set very low flow thresholds (below which pumping must cease) to protect these very low flows for the environment.

Held environmental water (HEW) is water allocated to a water access licence held for environmental purposes. Held environmental water is a commonly used term for ‘licensed environmental water’.

Both NSW and Commonwealth governments hold water licences for environmental purposes in regulated, unregulated and groundwater sources. These licences are held within the same licence categories as all other water access licences (e.g., high security, general security and supplementary) and are subject to the same operating rules.

These licences are used to achieve environmental benefits by providing water for specific environmental events. On occasion, environmental benefits are achieved by trading held environmental water as opposed to ordering it.

Some HEW meets the definition of ‘licensed environmental water’ as defined in section 8 of the Water Management Act however most HEW does not. The department recognises that a significant number of water access licences are held for an environmental purpose in addition to environmental water defined under section 8 of the Act.

See the Held environmental water register for a summary of past and current held environmental water shares, usage and trade data. Also see the Held environmental water licences register for further detail on all current HEW licences in NSW.