Water Act 2000

A mining tenure holder must give the chief executive a baseline assessment plan for the area of the holder’s tenure—

before the day the holder exercises its underground water rights; or

if the chief executive agrees to a later day, by that day.

Maximum penalty—500 penalty units.

A petroleum tenure holder must give the chief executive a baseline assessment plan for the area of the holder’s tenure before—

the start day for the petroleum tenure; or

if production testing or production of petroleum has already started in the area on the commencement of this section—30 business days after the commencement; or

if a longer period is agreed by the chief executive—the longer period.

Maximum penalty—500 penalty units.

A baseline assessment plan for the area of a resource tenure must—

state whether a baseline assessment has been undertaken for any bores in the area before the day the plan is given to the chief executive and, if so, identify the bores; and

identify each area of the holder’s resource tenure in which water bores, other than the bores mentioned in paragraph (a), are or may be located (each a priority area); and

state a timetable for undertaking baseline assessments of water bores in each priority area of the resource tenure for which an assessment has not already been completed, including a stated date by which all baseline assessments in each priority area will be undertaken, that complies with section 398 (a baseline assessment timetable); and

state the rationale for the baseline assessment timetable; and

be accompanied by the fee prescribed by regulation.

Despite subsection (3)(b), the chief executive may accept a baseline assessment plan—

for a petroleum tenure that is an authority to prospect under the Petroleum Act 1923 or the Petroleum and Gas Act—that excludes a block of the authority—

that is not contiguous with any other block of the authority; and

on which no production testing is being undertaken or is planned to be undertaken; or

generally—that excludes an area if the resource tenure holder can demonstrate to the chief executive’s satisfaction that any relevant aquifer in the area is not affected, or likely to be affected, because of the exercise of the holder’s underground water rights.