South East Queensland
11.3 Entitled extraction of non-allocated groundwater to urban water system

The volumetric value for the line item at the end of the 2012-13 year was 158 ML.

This line item consists of diversions from groundwater based on unsupplemented entitlements held by urban utilities and the Seqwater. The table below shows the breakdown of groundwater extracted for the South East Queensland (SEQ) water supply in each water resource plan (WRP) area within the SEQ region.

Due to the 2012–13 year being wetter than normal years, and the urban allocation announcements (line item 21.2 Surface water allocation announcements – urban system) being 100% for the 2012–13 year, reliance upon localised groundwater for urban supply within the SEQ region was reduced.

South East Queensland's urban water system comprises three sub-components: 

• urban water supply system
• wastewater system
• recycled water system.

There are four main sources of water for SEQ's urban water supply system:

• surface water (11.2 and 11.12 )
• groundwater (11.3)
• desalinated water (11.6)
• imported water (11.5). 

The water intake to the urban water supply system (251,897 ML) is from four sources: surface water (224,420 ML), groundwater (158 ML), desalinated water (2,805 ML), and imported water (24,514 ML).

During the 2012–13 year, the volume of water delivered to urban users (potable and non-potable water supplied amounting to 219,392 ML) was the major outflow from the urban water supply system. This supply for urban consumption represented about 87% of the total outflow. Approximately 11% of the outflow was leakage (19.3 Urban water system leakage to groundwater) and 2% was remaining losses.

Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for South East Queensland's urban water supply system; line item numbers are provided in brackets

Seqwater: WaterHub database.

Seqwater.

The volume of groundwater extracted for water supply in the 2012–13 year was calculated by summing the water produced at all groundwater treatment plants that feed from a groundwater source within the SEQ region.

There may have been some loss of water during the treatment process; therefore, the volume of water extracted from the source will be an underestimate.  

Groundwater treatment plants in Bribie Island and Stradbroke Island were not considered as they are located outside the National Water Account SEQ region. The volume of water produced from these plants was quantified as an import to the SEQ region.

Derived from measured data. Estimated in the range +/– 20%.