Water Act 2000

This section applies if the chief executive considers an area containing 2 or more resource tenures may be affected by the exercise of underground water rights by the tenure holders.

The chief executive may, by gazette notice, declare the area to be a cumulative management area for resource tenures identified in the gazette notice.

The gazette notice must describe the area for which the declaration is made.

The gazette notice may identify resource tenures specifically or generally, including resource tenures granted in the cumulative management area after the declaration is published in the gazette.

If the area of an identified resource tenure is partly within and partly outside the cumulative management area, the chief executive may decide whether the tenure, or part of the tenure, is a CMA tenure and, in deciding this, must have regard to—

the impacts on underground water caused by, or likely to be caused by, the exercise of underground water rights by the tenure holder; and

advice from the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment, the tenure holder and any other entity the chief executive considers appropriate.

The chief executive must, within 20 business days—

give notice of the declaration to the office and each CMA tenure holder in the cumulative management area, other than the holder of a closing CMA tenure; and

publish a map showing the cumulative management area on a Queensland Government website.

A failure to comply with subsection (4) does not invalidate or otherwise affect the declaration of the cumulative management area in relation to the identified resource tenures.