CICL Update August 2018
Dear Members,
This newsletter provides Members with an update on key water issues affecting CICL and its Members’ businesses.
In this month's newsletter -
External issues
Clifford Ashby - CEO
Department of Industry Allocation announcements
15/08/18
High Security 95%
General Security 6%
Waterways
http://www.colyirr.com.au
T. 1300 850 105
Water deliveries
Start 2018/19
14 August 2018
WaterMart
Open
Allocation trade
Internal and external trade is open
Inter-valley Trade
Trade into the Murrumbidgee is closed.
For up to date information on the IVT go to https://www.waternsw.com.au/customer-service/ordering-trading-and-pricing/trading/murrumbidgee.
Member breakfast
8.00am Tuesday 21 August
CICL Director nominations close
Friday 24 August.
CICL & CIMCL AGMs
Thursday 25 October
Allocation update save the date Tuesday 21 August
We are pleased the Department of Industry has accepted our invitation to talk to members about 2018/19 allocations.
The presentation will cover how the allocation process works, including the key drivers of increases in the general security announced allocation.
This meeting will be an important opportunity to hear first hand from Brian Graham, NSW Surface Water Manager, who leads the team which completes the water resource assessment.
The breakfast meeting is at 8.00am on Tuesday 21 August, at the Coleambally Community Club. To assist with catering please RSVP to Therese Chauncy on T. 02 6954 4003
The breakfast meeting will be followed by an Autonomous Drone Demonstration by RevolutionAg at the Coleambally Community Farm from approximately 10am till noon.
CICL Director nominations
Peter Sheppard and Anthony Mannes will both retire by rotation at the AGM in October. CICL has written to all members seeking nominations for the two director positions. Both Peter and Anthony have indicated they intend to nominate for another three year term.
Nominations must be received by Friday 24 August.
A postal ballot, if required, will be held between Monday 27 August and Monday 24 September.
For further information please contact our Company Secretary on T. 02 6954 4003
CIMCL Director nominations
Two of CIMCL’s directors will also retire by rotation at the AGM in October. CIMCL will call for nominations in late August.
Community Environmental Reference Committee (CERC)
The CERC recently held elections for Regional Representatives from Boona and Yamma Regions to participate as a member of the CERC due to the rotational retirement of the current representatives. Shane Fraser was elected unopposed for the Yamma Region. The voter participation in the Boona election was very high and we thank the candidates for standing and the members that took the time to vote. Shona Hando was re-elected for the Boona Region.
Important changes to Waterways affecting you
We have made some important changes to Waterways which may involve members having to update their Password. The changes are necessary to protect your privacy and also improve the security of our systems.
Thank you to those who attended our two information sessions. Further information is on the last page of this newsletter.
New improved website
I am pleased to announce our updated website is now operational. Our website address is https://www.colyirr.com.au/ The updated website is more professional and showcases our regional and water supply services. The website still includes links to Waterways, WaterMart, our Forms and Policies. We have also tried to make the information on our website more readily accessible.
Taking on board feedback from our Focus Group we have also changed the way our News and Newsletter is presented.
Crop water use intentions
Members are reminded that prior to being able to place a water order they need to complete a Crop Water Requirement Form. This form can be accessed from our website (not Waterways) in the Waterways section of Customers or by calling our office on T. 02 6954 4003.
Total farm water use maximum 7.2ML/ha
Foreign ownership of water entitlements register – If you are foreign owned you are required to register your irrigation rights held with the Australian Taxation Office. CICL requests any foreign owned entities that have changed their holdings of irrigation rights during the 2017/18 financial year to advise us of any changes, either when they occur or within 30 days of the end of the financial year.
The deadline for advising the ATO of changes to a foreign entity’s irrigation rights is within 30 days of the end of the financial year. More information is available from https://www.ato.gov.au/general/foreign-investment-in-australia/water-register/.
Changes to some of our standard service charges
We have increased some of our standard service charges, for example the charge for approving share, water or delivery entitlement transactions. The new charges are available from our website in the Schedule of Charges section of Customers.
WaterMart
The WaterMart temporary water trading platform is a secure, transparent, fast option for buying and selling temporary allocation with competitive transaction fees. The WaterMart Platform can be accessed at
https://www.colyirr.com.au/watermart/
The WaterMart Platform is open to any person or business that registers to use the platform for temporary trade of allocation in the Southern Connected Basin. There is a flat fee associated with trading on the WaterMart Platform with a copy of the temporary trade fees and charges available under the Standard Service Charges section of our website.
If you would like further information or would like to discuss how to register please contact Therese Chauncy on T. 02 6954 4003 or ea@colyirr.com.au
Weather station changes
We receive a lot of feedback about how our current weather station information needs to be improved. We are in the process of installing four weather stations across the Coleambally Irrigation Area. These sites will form part of the Ozeforecast network http://ozforecast.com.au/ and will provide members with access to better information, providing a broader coverage of weather conditions across the district and will include reporting of ‘Delta T’ which is an important indicator for acceptable spray conditions.
Members will be able to access the weather stations from our website. The new weather stations are expected to be on line by the end of September.
External Issues
Murray Darling Basin Plan
The Basin Plan regained bipartisan support in May, after the Commonwealth Agriculture and Water Minister reached agreement with Labor. This agreement means that the Basin Plan’s sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism will progress. This is important to reducing the volume of water that will be recovered for the environment. Contingent on Labor supporting the adjustment mechanism was progress on recovering the 450GL of “up water” from efficiency projects. This water is supposed to be recovered from projects which are at least socially and economically neutral. CICL continues to be concerned about how the efficiency projects will be progressed. In NSW and Victoria the current focus is to identify opportunities off-farm to find savings, with the aim of not directly reducing the volume available for irrigation.
Cap factors
The NSW Government and the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) have proposed some changes to the 2011 Long Term Diversion Limit Equivalent (LTDLE) factors, often called Cap factors for the Murrumbidgee and other catchments.
These factors are intended to allow governments to measure progress towards recovery of the volume required for the environment in the Basin Plan. The factors allow the many different types of water entitlements in the Basin to be compared. The factors are not a measure of reliability rather they are a measure of the extent to which the type of entitlement has been used or activated.
In the Murrumbidgee the LTDLE factors have decreased for general security and increased for supplementary water compared to 2011. Government has emphasised these factors are used to measure progress with water recovery and are not used when making allocation announcements. It is in our interests to be confident the factors reflect actual activation in the Murrumbidgee.
One positive of the updated LTDLE factors is that the MDBA have agreed to include an additional 40,000ML of water recovery from the Nimmie Caira investment. This volume had previously been disputed between NSW and the MDBA.
Water Resource Plan
The Water Resource Plan for the Murrumbidgee, and updated Water Sharing Plan, are due to go on public exhibition in December 2018 and must be finalised by 30 June 2019.
CICL is not confident the December deadline will be met by the Department of Industry. CICL continues to participate in the Stakeholder Advisory Panel formed to provide input to the Water Resource Plan. To date the Stakeholder Advisory Panel has not been exposed to any options to alter the current Water Sharing Plan.
The highest priority issue agreed by all interests has been to consider alternatives to the complex planned environmental water rules in the water sharing plan.
Water Management Act changes
At the end of June the NSW Government made significant changes to the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW). While many of these changes will allow the Government to implement its new metering and measurement requirements which CICL supports, some of the other changes increase the power of the Minister to alter water access licence holders’ access to water without compensation.
There is no doubt the pressure to protect irrigators’ access to water in our external operating environment is significant. On-going participation to benefit CICL and its members continues to be important to CICL as does ensuring our two peak organisations, National Irrigators’ Council and NSW Irrigators’ Council, are effective.
Waterways
With the new website, there is a new way to access Waterways. On the front page of the website is a green banner that has “Click Here to login to Waterways”, that will take you directly to Waterways:
We have implemented new password requirements. If your password doesn’t meet these minimum requirements, you will be asked to change your password when you first login.
We have moved your existing usernames and passwords to the new website. If your username or password had any capital letters, they have both been set as lowercase (e.g. “lowercase” instead of “UPPERCASE”) and will need to be entered without any capital letters when you login to the new system. You are now able to change your password from within Waterways.
If you have forgotten your password, CICL Water Operations staff will no longer be able to retrieve the existing password. We can, however, send you a temporary password that you will have to change once logged in.
IVR – 1300 850 105
The phone ordering system has also been updated. Your existing customer number and PIN will continue to work with this system, but some of the menu prompts have changed. You will need to now press hash “#” at the end of your menu selection. Please review any speed dials you have saved.
Waterways Mobile
We are excited to announce the use of Waterways Mobile. If you access Waterways using a mobile device you will see a screen similar to this:
This new format allows for easy use on both mobile phones and tablets. All items are designed for touch interface devices, and is similar to other “apps” on your phone.
Should you have any queries regarding these changes to Waterways, please contact Ali Simmons on T 02 6954 4003.