Sydney
Accountability Statement

1. This water accounting report has been prepared and presented in accordance with the Exposure Draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, with the following exceptions:

• No Assurance Statement was prepared because the standard for, and practice of, assurance of water accounting reports have yet to be developed.
• Notes on the quantification approaches and levels of uncertainty are incomplete because the knowledge base is often inadequate.
• No information is disclosed about material events that occurred after 30 June 2011, such as extreme precipitation and significant water rights purchases. This information is publicly available elsewhere.
• Asset changes for water stores (surface water, groundwater, urban water) have been recognised in the Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities, without a corresponding water store asset volume being recognised in the Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities for the following line items:

            – 1.3 Regulated river
            – 1.4 Lakes and Wetland
            – 2.1 Water table aquifer
            – 3.1 Urban water supply system
            – 3.2 Wastewater system
            – 3.3 Recycled water system.
  

• Volumes that failed the recognition criteria are reported in the water accounting statements with dashes ('.'), in order to highlight data and knowledge gaps that may affect the water accounting statements balances.
• Information on the environmental water outcomes arising from the management of flows under the water sharing plan for the Kangaroo River water source was unavailable at the time of publication.

2. The report has been compiled from the best data available, as detailed in the water accounting statement Notes, in the time available to compile it from a number of sources. Some data quality compromises have been made by the Bureau of Meteorology for the sake of a nationally-consistent approach to report preparation and presentation.

3. All significant and specific interpretations of the Exposure Draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 1 for the purpose of the preparation of this report are explained in the water accounting policy Notes. The Bureau of Meteorology is responsible for these interpretations.

Louise Minty

Assistant Director, Water Information Services

Bureau of Meteorology

18 July 2013