Regional water resources assessments - Groundwater Management Area Far North Prescribed Well Area

Regional Water Resource Assessment – GMU

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Far North Prescribed Well Area

Far North Prescribed Well Area Groundwater Management Unit is within South Australia and is 342,909 km2

This page provides high level performance indicators of water management for the Far North Prescribed Well Area groundwater management unit (GMU) based on information provided by the government of SA.
It provides answers to a range of questions of relevance to the National Water Initiative (NWI), specifically in relation to:

Groundwater management framework
Water resource caps
Surface water / groundwater interaction
Sustainable groundwater yield
Environmental allowances / provisions
Groundwater diversions
Groundwater entitlements

Please note that a dash means that either the data was not available, not provided or that the question was not relevant for a particular area.

Groundwater management unit	Far North Prescribed Well Area
Project ID	SA_GW_70
Size of groundwater management unit	342909 km²
State	SA

Groundwater management framework

What is the status of the water management plan for this groundwater management unit?	Final
	Final
If a final or draft plan has been written, what year was it completed?	2006
If a final or draft plan has been written, does it explicitly consider surface water?	Yes
If yes, how?	Minor reduction to groundwater yield to allow for some discharge of groundwater to the SW
Does your water plan specify water quality objectives to meet environmental and other public benefit outcomes?	Yes
Other items included in the management framework are:
Metering program for this area	Included
Effluent recycling	Not included
Climate change	Not included
Aquifer storage and recovery	Included
Efficient irrigation systems	Included
Other	Not included
Management plan available at:

Water resource caps

Has a cap been placed on groundwater usage / abstraction in this groundwater management unit?	Yes
Is the cap an absolute limit to allocation or provisional limit?	Absolute
If there is a cap, what year was it implemented?	2006
If there is a cap, is it considered to represent the sustainable groundwater yield?	Yes
The following water usage types are included/not included under the cap:
Irrigation	Included
Urban supply	Included
Commercial / Industrial	Included
Stock and domestic	Not included
Mining / Oil and gas	Included
Forestry	Not included
Drought supply	Not included
Greywater use	Not included
Effluent recycling	Not included
Aquifer storage and recovery	Included
Other	-

Surface water / groundwater interaction

Are groundwater and surface water managed as an integrated water resource in this groundwater management unit?	No
Reason or method:	-

Sustainable groundwater yield

The sustainable yield within this groundwater management unit for 2004/05 was:	153400 ML
The method used to determine the sustainable yield was:	Detailed numerical modelling
Was the sustainable yield determined for the combined (i.e. surface water and groundwater) water resources?	No
Is the cap considered to be at or below the sustainable yield of surface water?	Not assessed
If the cap is above the sustainable yield, are there management actions to bring the cap down to sustainable yield?	-
How has the aquifer responded?	Stable
Does this aquifer trend require a management response?	Yes
What is the level of development relative to the sustainable yield?	Moderate level of development

Environmental allowances / provisions

Have groundwater dependent ecosystems been identified for this groundwater management unit?	Yes
If yes, in what year were they identified?	1980
If yes, what type (s) of groundwater dependent ecosystems have been identified?
Terrestrial vegetation	-
River base flow systems	-
Aquifer and cave ecosystems	-
Wetlands	Identified
Terrestrial fauna	-
Estuarine and near shore marine ecosystems	-
Other	-
Have environmental water requirements for the identified groundwater dependent ecosystems been determined?	No
Have environmental water provisions for the identified groundwater dependent ecosystems been formally adopted / approved?	No
Do the environmental water provisions take into account surface water?	No
If yes, how?	-
Completed environmental water requirement/provision reports available at:

Groundwater diversions

The total groundwater extraction in the groundwater management unit for 2004/05 was:	80000 ML
What percentage of groundwater extraction is determined from metered data?	-
What is the level of diversions relative to the sustainable yield?	52%
For surface water diversion that is NOT metered, how was the surface water diversion determined for 2004/05?
Estimated from irrigated areas	No
Estimated from licence volume	Yes
Estimated from power usage for pumps	No
Estimated from models	No
Other	No

Groundwater entitlements

Entitlements for groundwater are required/not required for the following usage types:
Irrigation	Required
Urban supply	Required
Commercial / Industrial	Required
Farm dams	Required
Stock and domestic	Not required
Mining / Oil and gas	Required
Forestry	Not required
Floodplain harvesting	Required
Drought supply	Not required
Greywater use	Not required
Effluent recycling	Not required
Aquifer storage and recovery	Not required
Other	-

National Water Commission