Ground Water (Qualco-Sunlands) Control Act 2000

Subject to this section, if the total quantity of water used to irrigate a particular category of land comprising the whole or part of an irrigated property over a period comprising a block of three consecutive water usage years exceeds the quantity prescribed by subsection (2), the owner or occupier of the land will be taken to have overused water on that category of land in the last of those years to the extent of the excess.

The quantity of water for the purposes of subsection (1) is the quantity of water authorised for irrigation of the land during the relevant block of three consecutive water usage years by the waterlogging and salinity risk management allocation (if any) attached to the land.

By way of explanation—

the first block of three consecutive years is comprised of the first, second and third water usage years of the operation of the Scheme;

the second block is comprised of the second, third and fourth water usage years of the Scheme;

the third block is comprised of the third, fourth and fifth water usage years, and so on.

In order to avoid an owner and occupier being charged more than once in respect of the unauthorised use of water, where—

the quantity of water used to irrigate land in a particular water usage year (the relevant year) will be included to determine the question of the overuse of water in respect of two or three blocks of consecutive years under subsection (1) (for example the second water usage year will be included in determinations in respect of the first and second blocks of consecutive years and the third and subsequent water usage years will be included in determinations in respect of three blocks of consecutive years); and

the quantity of water used in the relevant year exceeded the risk management allocation attached to the land for the corresponding contribution year; and

the quantity of water used in the relevant year has already been taken into account in determining that an overuse of water has occurred in one of the blocks of three consecutive water usage years of which the relevant year is a component year, the quantity of water used in the relevant year for the purpose of determining whether water has been overused in a subsequent block of consecutive years of which the relevant year is a component year will be taken to be equivalent to the risk management allocation for the contribution year corresponding to the relevant water usage year.

The third water usage year of the Scheme and each subsequent water usage year will be the last year of a block of three years comprising that year and the two preceding years in respect of an irrigated property even though the land comprising the property was not an irrigated property until the last of those years.

For the purposes of this section—

there will be taken to be a risk management allocation of zero in respect of land to which a risk management allocation is not attached; and

where during a particular period an owner or occupier uses water to irrigate more than one category of land, an overuse of water on a category of land having a lower risk will be reduced by the equivalent under use (if any) during that period on a category of land having a higher risk; and

if the overuse of water occurs on land that has not been classified under section 33, the overuse will be taken to have occurred on land having the highest degree of risk.

If the Trust has made a dry year declaration under section 53 in respect of a water usage year, the quantity of water used to irrigate land in that year will be notionally reduced in accordance with the declaration for the purposes of determining the overuse of water under this section.