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Katherine Tindall Limestone Aquifer water allocation plan

Current planKatherine Tindall Limestone Aquifer water allocation plan 2019 - 2024
MapKatherine Tindall water allocation plan area map
Area 5,951km2 (covers 0.42% of the Northern Territory and 1.81% of the Daly Roper Beetaloo WCD)
Declared 16 August 2019
Duration 5 years
Review NIL
Expiry 15 August 2024

The water allocation plan (WAP) applies to all surface water and groundwater within part of the Daly Roper Beetaloo water control district (WCD) including the Katherine township.

The Katherine Tindall Limestone Aquifer Water Allocation Plan 2019 – 2024 applies to:

  • groundwater discharge to surface water from the Tindall limestone aquifer within the catchment of the Katherine River
    • between the Ironwood and Wilden gauging stations on the Katherine River
  • groundwater in the Tindall limestone aquifer within the catchment of the Katherine River
    • this excludes the catchments of Dry River and Durrinyan Creek.

Plan objectives

The main objectives of the plan are to:

  • meet the environmental water needs of water dependent ecosystems
  • protect Aboriginal cultural values associated with water by ensuring their water needs are met
  • ensure security of supply for future public water supply and rural stock and domestic purposes
  • provide access to water resources to support local Aboriginal economic development
  • provide fair access to water to support regional economic development
  • ensure sufficient water of appropriate quality is available to support recreation activities and community services.

For more information about the objectives, strategies and performance indicators, read the Katherine Tindall Limestone Aquifer water allocation plan 2019 – 2024.

Announced allocations

Read the announced allocation (AA) decisions for the current water allocation plan area:

Read more about announced allocations.

Previous plans

Beneficial uses

The beneficial uses of water in a WCD are:

  • environment
  • Aboriginal economic development.

The Administrator may set other categories and publish a notice in the Gazette.

The beneficial uses of water and water quality objectives for the Daly Roper Beetaloo WCD were declared on 10 April 2019 in Gazette G15 PDF (264.0 KB).

The gazette declared that the beneficial uses of all surface water and groundwater to be:

  • agriculture
  • aquaculture
  • public water supply
  • environment
  • cultural
  • industry
  • rural stock and domestic
  • mining and petroleum activities.

Water resources

This region experiences strong interaction between groundwater and surface water.

This includes groundwater contributing to important dry season river flows in the Katherine River and associated springs as a result of discharge from the Tindall limestone aquifer.

Surface water

Water management arrangements in the plan apply to surface water of the Katherine River, which come from the discharge from the Tindall limestone aquifer between Ironwood and Wilden Gauging stations.

Allocations

Surface water is allocated to environmental, cultural, rural stock and domestic, agriculture and industry beneficial uses.

Licences

There are 9 surface water licences for agricultural and industry uses. Water can be taken from the Katherine River at any time of the year.

For this reason they are managed as part of the Katherine Tindall limestone aquifer consumptive pool and not under surface water extraction policy.

They are treated like groundwater licences and managed in a similar way subject to the same annual announced allocation conditions.

View the licences.

Groundwater

In the plan area, the Tindall limestone aquifer (TLA) is largely overlain by the younger Oolloo Dolostone and Jinduckin geological formations. Water recharge does not occur where these systems overlay (confined sections).

The TLA only receives recharge water where it is in direct contact with the ground surface (unconfined sections). Recharge generally occurs after a significant wet season rainfall.

Where the TLA receives recharge through sinkholes, there is a risk of contamination.

This aquifer is a cavernous system.  Large volumes of water can be stored within the fractures and caverns of the formation. As water flows through, it discharges into many river systems, including the Katherine, Flora, Douglas and Roper rivers.

The fractures and caverns range from sub millimetres to large caves.

Allocations

The Katherine Tindall limestone aquifer WAP identifies that the Katherine Tindall limestone is considered over allocated. This is because the estimated sustainable yield (38,391ML per year) is less than the water extraction limit (38,628 ML per year).

However, actual water use in the plan area reported for 2018-19 was 11,103ML.

The WAP includes a strategic Aboriginal water reserve of 3,235ML per year. However, as the system is over allocated, the Aboriginal water reserve will remain a notional (empty) amount until water is available for allocation.

The estimated allocation to rural stock and domestic is 1,964ML per year.

Licences

There are currently 66 groundwater extraction licences for public water supply, agriculture, industry and cultural use subject to the plan with a maximum entitlement of 33,802ML per year.

View the licences.

Aboriginal water reserves

A strategic Aboriginal water reserve (SAWR) is included as a subclass of some other beneficial uses.

The volume of water is 10% of the available consumptive pool, which is taken from the estimated sustainable yield. This excludes the water allocated for public water supply and rural stock and domestic use. The volume of water is 3,235ML per year.

As the system is currently over allocated, it’s recommended that licences for new or returned water are not granted.

There isn’t sufficient water available to deliver the SAWR. As such, it is included in the plan as a notional allocation until there is sufficient water available.

Contact

If you have any questions about permits or licensing requirements in the area, email water.licensing@nt.gov.au.

For water planning enquiries, email waterresources@nt.gov.au.