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• AARES 2003 NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
• 2 September 2003
• HUNTER RIVER SALINITY
• TRADING SCHEME
• Simon A Y Smith
• Executive Director
• Policy, Economics and Environmental Reporting

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Why We Needed A Scheme

• Increasing salt impacts
• Pressure for development
• Conflicting interests
• Existing tools could not resolve pressures

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Why Industry Generates Saline Water

• Coal mines
• rocks contain salt
• groundwater is salty
• stormwater is salty
• water make can exceed reuse
• Electricity generation
• evaporation concentrates natural salts

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Developing A Solution - Options Considered

• Nil discharge, shutdowns
• Pipeline to sea
• Deep well injections
• Storage and evaporation
• Desalinisation
• Trading Scheme (preferred)

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Developing The Solution

• Many groups working together
• river monitoring
• scheduled discharge trial
• Pilot scheme developed
• Salinity goals agreed with the community
• 600EC at Denman
• 900EC at Singleton

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Objectives

• To control the impact of industrial discharges of
  saline water - keep river fresh
• Regulate discharges in a cost effective,
  equitable and flexible way

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The Hunter River Catchment

• 3 river sectors
• 22 coal mines
• 2 power stations

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Salinity Stabilised
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Discharge Rules
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Discharge rules how much? (total allowable
discharge)
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Decisions Based On Real-Time Data

• River is divided into blocks
• Each block has a flow classification
• Services Coordinator (DIPNR) monitors and
  supplies information
• Discharge start and finish times defined for each
  participant

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?
4
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Managed Discharges

• Flow level
• Salt (t) allowed
• Discharge times per site

www.hits.nsw.gov.au
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On-Line Credit Exchange Facility
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Credit Register - Public Reports
www.epa.nsw.gov.au/hrsts/
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Lessons From The Pilot

• Scheme framework supported but there was a need
  to
• increase certainty for industry
• provide access to credits for new development
• have transparent, accountable monitoring and
  modelling services
• establish an independent legal structure
• Prepare for planned industrial development

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Formalise Scheme - Regulation

• Existing water quality objectives maintained and
  basic rules unchanged
• Key areas of change
• 1 - credit allocation and lifespan
• longer credit lives
• access for new development (auctions)
• 2 - flood flow thresholds
• need to accommodate likely future development
• 3 - scheme administration
• more transparent and accountable service

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Results

• Point source discharges no longer cause salinity
  problems
• Economic development can proceed
• Acrimonious dispute resolved
• Industry ownership - due to effective
  consultation
• All participants having a better understanding of
  scheme due to on-line credit exchange
• Pilot demonstrated that the scheme would work
  it has been formalised