Don't let the coast run dry!

WRITE TO THE MINISTER

Our state’s coastal rivers are the envy of the world. The experience of cooling off in a pristine, unspoiled swimming spot on a hot day is a privilege, that reminds us why keeping our rivers healthy is so important.

The NSW Government knows that when rules aren’t enforced, they get broken. Despite this, they allow the majority of water pumped from many of our coastal catchments to continue unchecked. Under the government’s ‘No Meter, No Pump’ policy, pumps less than 100mm (rivers) and 200mm (groundwater) don’t require metering ...

WRITE TO THE MINISTER

Our state’s coastal rivers are the envy of the world. The experience of cooling off in a pristine, unspoiled swimming spot on a hot day is a privilege, that reminds us why keeping our rivers healthy is so important.

The NSW Government knows that when rules aren’t enforced, they get broken. Despite this, they allow the majority of water pumped from many of our coastal catchments to continue unchecked. Under the government’s ‘No Meter, No Pump’ policy, pumps less than 100mm (rivers) and 200mm (groundwater) don’t require metering. This means there’s no way to check how much water is being taken by up to 90% of pumps in some catchments.

We know the high value of our coastal rivers for threatened species, drinking water for towns, tourism and recreation, downstream users and Traditional Custodians. The government does too. It makes no sense that they’re funding work to review coastal extraction limits, but have no way to monitor how much water is actually being pumped. With climate change worsening, we can’t risk dry rivers and species extinctions just because we can’t check if people are complying with their water licenses.

Currently, the government is amending the NSW metering policy, and we think this is the perfect opportunity to ask for the small pump exemptions to be scrapped. Small rivers need protection too!

To make your letter more powerful, please personalise the suggested text, perhaps making reference to an issue in your local river.

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Don’t let the coast run dry!

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I'm writing to you today to ask you to please cancel the metering exemption for pumps less than 100mm (rivers) and 200mm (groundwater). This loophole allows significant unmetered extraction of water from numerous small catchments throughout the state.

NSW’s coastal catchments include many small, undammed rivers that are home to countless threatened species, from the critically endangered Bellinger River turtle to the iconic Platypus. Rivers facilitate tourism and recreation economies, supply town water, support downstream primary industries, and are culturally significant for Traditional Owners. Many of our small coastal rivers are amongst the highest value in Australia.

Continuing to exempt pumps less than 100mm (rivers) and 200mm (groundwater) from metering means in some coastal catchments like the Richmond, up to 90% of pumps would remain unmonitored. It is possible that entire valleys and industries are extracting water with no metering at all. In some smaller rivers, the cumulative impacts of these pumps are significant, and yet extraction will continue going unchecked.

Unmetered extraction means non-compliance, and directly undermines the reason we have water management rules in the first place. You cannot manage what you don’t measure.

While it is meaningful that the metering policy will eventually result in most of the water being pumped from the ground and rivers across NSW being metered, approximately 40% of NSW’s pumps are below the threshold and would remain exempt. Exempting such a significant proportion of pumps from metering is akin to giving up on managing our coastal waterways.

Coastal rivers are prone to extreme drought, and in the face of worsening climate impacts, not mandating the measurement of water extraction is neither evidence-based, nor compatible with the precautionary principle.

The NSW Government is investing significant resources into reviewing coastal extraction limits – but rules need compliance, and without the metering of small pumps, this investment will not improve outcomes for coastal communities and ecosystems. 
 
We call on the NSW Government to ensure the ‘No Meter, No Pump’ policy includes all pumps with a water access license, regardless of size.

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