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The aim of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was to reduce water extracted for irrigation. Despite this, NSW has allowed growth in water take.
The NSW Govt is finalising $1 billion worth of new floodplain harvesting licences to give away to a handful of irrigators. 2/7
NSW is now legalising this increased extraction. The volumes being licensed will exceed the legal limit set by the Basin Plan.
An explainer:

1/ Last Friday, @MelindaPaveyMP gazetted 3 new floodplain harvesting regulations. One of which allows for the exemption of rainfall run off collection under the Water Management Act 2000

legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/pdf/asmad…
#MurrayDarling #NSWpol #NSWFPH 2/ Under this regulation, land holders can use tail water dams to capture rainfall run-off from an irrigated field without a licence, and use that water to irrigate.

1/ Our full report into the growth of private storages, and by extension floodplain harvesting is available here:
irnnsw.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/21022-…

The bottom line is private dam storage has grown 2.4 times in the Northern NSW MDB since 1994
#Auspol #MurrayDarling #NSWPol #NSWFPH 2/ With publicly available satellite data we mapped the surface area of water storages and used LiDAR technology to determine cross-section and depth. We calculated growth in number and capacity of on-farm storages on the NSW Northern Basin floodplain.