The table below shows a breakdown of the volume of surface water taken for on-grid water supply in each water resource plan (WRP) area within the South East Queensland (SEQ) region where the water treatment plant (WTP) sources water from a water supply scheme (WSS).
Water Resource Plan (WRP) area | Water Supply Scheme (WSS) | Water Treatment Plant (WTP) | Volume (ML) |
---|---|---|---|
Gold Coast | Nerang | Molendinar | 38,085 |
Mudgeeraba | 19,372 | ||
Total Gold Coast WRP area | 57,457 | ||
Logan Basin | Warrill Valley | Boonah–Kalbah | 627 |
Logan River | Helen Street | 616 | |
Rathdowney | 28 | ||
South Maclean | 1,044 | ||
Total Logan Basin WRP area | 2,315 | ||
Moreton | Pine Valley | North Pine | 23,301 |
Central Brisbane and Stanley | Mount Crosby (combined) | 92,654 | |
Total Moreton WRP area | 115,955 | ||
Total SEQ region | 175,727 |
For the purpose of the National Water Account 2010, the high-security urban holders class only includes the SEQ Water Grid Manager entitlement allocations, as they have been identified as the urban holder of high-security entitlements in the resource operation plans (ROPs). Other organisations may hold high-security entitlements for some form of urban use, but as urban use is not identified on entitlements, these could not readily be identified. For this reason, a small number of entitlements that may fall into this category are included in line item 25.1.97 Allocation announcement on regulated flow – other lumped holder.
The SEQ Water Grid Manager holds high-security (high-priority, for the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management) entitlements with a volume greater than the historical urban diversion on these entitlements. High-security entitlements are given the same announced allocation percentage for a given WSS, and therefore the SEQ Water Grid Manager does not obtain any preference over any other high-security entitlement holder.
The 2009-10 reporting period represented a transition from a drought-dominated period to a wet period. In the previous years, water storages were at low levels and, if entitlements were administered in the same manner as currently, under the newly established ROPs, low announced allocation percentages would have been given to high-security entitlements such as those held by the SEQ Water Grid Manager.
Although urban demand has some elasticity through water restrictions and habit modification, the extent of urban demand elasticity is not sufficient to counter the variations in announced allocation. In wet years such as the 2009-10 reporting year, when announced allocation percentages are high, significant forfeiture of SEQ Water Grid Manager allocations will occur.
The table below shows the surface water allocation carryover reconciliation.
Allocation category | Opening balance (ML) | Announcement (ML) | Allocation diversion (ML) | Forfeiture (ML) | Closing balance (ML) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
High-security urban | 0 | 422,930 | 175,727 | 247,203 | 0 |
High-security other | 0 | 20,860 | 20,324 | 64,682 | 0 |
General-security other | 4,534 | 71,288 | 11,676 |
Queensland Water Commission (QWC), WaterHub database.
QWC.
The volume of water abstracted from surface water under high-security allocations (defined as high priority in the Water Allocations Register) held by the SEQ Water Grid Manager was estimated based on the volume of water produced at on-grid WTPs. The on-grid WTP metered outputs were obtained from the WaterHub database by the QWC.
Derived from measured data. Estimated uncertainty is +/– 20%.
The volume reported for surface water diversions to WTPs does not consider water loss in the raw water trunk mains or through the treatment processes. Therefore, the volume reported may be a slight underestimate of water extracted from the source.