Regional water resources assessments - Groundwater Management Area Orbost Groundwater Management Area

Regional Water Resource Assessment – GMU

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Orbost Groundwater Management Area

Orbost Groundwater Management Area is within Victoria and is 36 km2

This page provides high level performance indicators of water management for the Orbost Groundwater Management Area groundwater management unit (GMU) based on information provided by the government of VIC.
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	Orbost Groundwater Management Area
Project ID	VIC_GW_73
Size of groundwater management unit	36 km²
State	VIC

Groundwater management framework

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

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?	2005
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	Not included
Forestry	Not included
Drought supply	Included
Greywater use	Included
Effluent recycling	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:	Not integrated - planned

Sustainable groundwater yield

The sustainable yield within this groundwater management unit for 2004/05 was:	1200 ML
The method used to determine the sustainable yield was:	Simple analytical method
Was the sustainable yield determined for the combined (i.e. surface water and groundwater) water resources?	Yes
Is the cap considered to be at or below the sustainable yield of surface water?	Below
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?	-
Does this aquifer trend require a management response?	-
What is the level of development relative to the sustainable yield?	High 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?	2004
If yes, what type (s) of groundwater dependent ecosystems have been identified?
Terrestrial vegetation	Identified
River base flow systems	Identified
Aquifer and cave ecosystems	Not identified
Wetlands	Identified
Terrestrial fauna	Not identified
Estuarine and near shore marine ecosystems	Not identified
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?	-
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:	270 ML
What percentage of groundwater extraction is determined from metered data?	100%
What is the level of diversions relative to the sustainable yield?	23%
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	No
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	Not required
Forestry	Not required
Floodplain harvesting	Required
Drought supply	Required
Greywater use	Required
Effluent recycling	Required
Aquifer storage and recovery	Required
Other	-

National Water Commission