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Management of water in Victoria includes management of the Environmental Water Reserve. The Environmental Water Reserve comprises water that is set aside through:

1. Entitlements for the environment, which are called either environmental bulk entitlements or environmental entitlements
   
2. The operation of conditions on
   a. consumptive bulk entitlements
   b. licences, permits
   c. management plans
3. All other water in the catchment not allocated for consumptive use (i.e. water above cap).

1. Environmental entitlements

For 2009–10 the following environmental entitlements existed:

• Yarra Environmental Entitlement 2006
• Silver and Wallaby Creeks Environmental Entitlement 2006
• Tarago and Bunyip Rivers Environmental Entitlement 2009

There were no environmental bulk entitlements within the Melbourne region.

In the bulk entitlements listed, operational conditions such as passing flows, are specified.

Waterway	Bulk Entitlement	Holder
Jacksons Creek / Maribyrnong River	Bulk Entitlement (Maribyrnong – Southern Rural Water) Conversion Order 2000	Southern Rural Water
Riddells Creek	Bulk Entitlement (Riddels Creek) Conversion Order 2001	Western Water
Bolinda Creek	Bulk Entitlement (Romsey) Conversion Order 2001	Western Water
Monument Creek	Bulk Entitlement (Lancefield) Conversion Order 2001	Western Water
Barringo Creek	Bulk Entitlement (Gisborne–Barrigo Creek) Conversion Order 2004	Western Water
Willimigongon Creek and Railway Creek	Bulk Entitlement (Macedon and Mount Macedon) Conversion Order 2004	Western Water
Bunyip and Tarago Rivers	Bulk Entitlement (Bunyip and Tarago Rivers – Melbourne Water for South East Water Limited) Conversion Order 2009; Bulk Entitlement (Bunyip and Tarago Rivers – Melbourne Water for Yarra Valley Water Limited) Conversion Order 2009; Bulk Entitlement (Bunyip and Tarago Rivers – Melbourne Water for City West Water Limited) Conversion Order 2009	South East Water, Yarra Valley Water and City West Water
Tarago River	Bulk Entitlement (Tarago River – Gippsland Water) Conversion Order 2009	Gippsland Water
Tarago River	Bulk Entitlement (Tarago River – Southern Rural Water) Conversion Order 2009	Southern Rural Water
Werribee System	Bulk Entitlement (Werribee system – Irrigation) Conversion Order 1997	Southern Rural Water
Werribee System (Pykes Creek)	Bulk Entitlement (Myrniong) Conversion Order 2004	Western Water

Share of storage for environmental entitlements administered within the Melbourne region during 2009–10 are presented in the table below.

Environmental entitlements in 2009–10 (ML)

Entitlement	Entitlement volume at 30 Jun 2010	2009–10 allocation	Allocation carried over from 2008–09	Total water available in 2009–10	Water used in 2009–10	Carry over to 2010–11
Yarra Environmental Entitlement 2006*	17,000	0	0	0	0	0
Tarago and Bunyip Rivers Environmental Entitlement 2009**	3,000	287	0	287	0	287
Silver and Wallaby Creeks Environmental Entitlement 2006***	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	20,000	287	0	287	0	287

*Emergency water available under the qualification contingency plan.
** This environmental entitlement specifies that the full allocation is not provided until Stage 3a water restrictions are lifted in Melbourne. This occurred on 02 April 2010.
*** This entitlement only specifies passing flows and not allocations.

Of the total water diverted, further details are provided in the table below.

Entitlement	Diversion	Location	Date diverted	Flow rate
Bulk Entitlement (Maribyrnong – Southern Rural Water) Conversion Order 2000	40 ML	Rosslynne Reservoir (Jacksons Creek)	05 February 2010	11 ML/d

The key reasons for the above diversions were to provide 40 ML of flushing flow to improve water quality in key refuge habitats in Jacksons Creek and to provide passing flows of 200 ML/d for the Yarra River reach, a Victorian heritage river.

2 (b) Operational conditions: licensed diversions

Some operational conditions exist on licensed diversions or permits within the Melbourne region. All Melbourne Water issued licences have catchment specific flow triggers in place to specify under what flow conditions water may be taken and protect environmental flows.

For example, for Woori Yallock catchment:

The licensee must not:

The licensee must:

2 (c) Operational conditions: management plans

There are six streamflow management plans in the Yarra catchment:

1. Plenty River Streamflow Management Plan
2. Diamond Creek Streamflow Management Plan
3. Hoddles Creek Streamflow Management Plan
4. Olinda Creek Streamflow Management Plan
5. Stringybark Creek Streamflow Management Plan
6. Steels, Pauls and Dixons Creeks Streamflow Management Plan.

Restrictions

New or ongoing qualification of rights or restrictions in place in 2009–10 that limited the use of environmental water (e.g. qualification of rights on environmental entitlements, environmental bulk entitlements or passing flows) are listed in the table below:

Formal licence	Action	Rights	Location	Start Date	Expiry date or conditions of expiry	Details	Mitigation measures
Bulk Entitlement (Maribyrnong – Southern Rural Water) Conversion Order 2000	Permanent amendment	Passing flows	Maribyrnong River (Jacksons Creek)	01 July 2010	NA	Instead of ‘provide passing flows at all times’, it changed to ‘provide passing flows when Western Water’s capacity share of the Rosslynne Reservoir holds more than 2,200 ML’.	Maribyrnong River – low inflows management plan Environmental emergency contingency plan and monitoring program

Environmental assets

Some priority environmental assets that are dependent on the Environmental Water Reserve include:

• Nationally threatened population of Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena) and Macquarie perch (Macquaria australasica) in the Yarra River.
• The Yarra River between Warburton and Warrandyte has been identified as a Victorian heritage river.
• Nationally threatened population of dwarf galaxias (Galaxiella pusilla), a tiny freshwater fish endemic to southeastern Australia, and Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena) in the Tarago and Bunyip river system.