Metering
Rural Water Metering
State Water and the NSW Office of Water (The Office) are jointly responsible for the development and implementation of NSW Interim Water Extraction Monitoring Standards to improve the accuracy of measurement of water extracted in NSW for irrigation and other purposes.
All licensed works (pumps/diversions) that use water for licensed purposes such as stock and domestic, mining, commercial, industrial and irrigation must abide by the conditions on the licences and approvals issued by The Office.
The three main sources of water are:
- Regulated systems where the surface water is able to be stored in dams and weirs and released in a controlled manner depending on needs.
- Unregulated systems where the creeks and rivers that have no structures controlling downstream flows and users have flow conditions that control their extraction.
- Groundwater systems where water is taken from aquifers or fractured rock normally through bores.
At this stage those who do not need a licence are those who qualify as basic right holders using water for stock watering or domestic needs.
The NSW Office of Water is the regulator who issues licences for non-urban water extractors and are also responsible for the equitable sharing of the resource (water) amongst shareholders. This water sharing is administered by way of the 1912 Water Act or the Water Sharing Plans that have been developed under the Water Management Act of 2000.
State Water Corporation is the operator which (under licence) manages the structures and operation of the regulated systems and billing for entitlements and usages on all systems.