A planning approval was granted by the City in 1992 for the cartage of spring water from a private property in Roleystone 2-3 times a week.
In 1996 an application was received to increase that to 18-22 loads a week and Council deferred the application pending receipt of a hydrogeological report.
The applicant then lodged an appeal to the Minister for Planning, Graham Kierath MLA, against the City’s deemed refusal of this application.
Minister Kierath, in considering the appeal, was not convinced that a planning approval was required for the extraction of water from the ground on a rural zoned lot. The Minister in his letter dated 15 April 1997 stated:
“…I found that I was not convinced that a planning approval is required for the extraction of water from the ground on a rural zoned lot. The pumping of water is an activity commonly associated with rural lots and the volume of water it is proposed to extract is consistent with that which would be extracted on many other properties in the locality. It has not been demonstrated that the owners of any other rural lots in the vicinity have been required to obtain planning approval for this part of their activities.”
The Minister did accept, however “that the commercial trucking activities associated with the application can perhaps be construed as requiring a planning approval.”
The Minister upheld the appeal and approved the cartage of an average of 10 x 28,000L loads per week with a maximum of 15 x 28,000L loads per week. As is common with development approvals, there is no end date on the Minister’s approval.
In February 2003, an application to vary the carter tanker size to 29,400L was approved subject to a maximum of 14 loads per week and an average of 9.5 tanker loads per week.
Minister Kierath’s decision does not allow the City to monitor the bore for groundwater extraction from the property as part of this planning approval. The landowner, like other properties in the area, can extract water without regulation for use on their property as the area is an unproclaimed area according to the Department of Water and Environment Regulation (DWER) mapping. Due to the appeal decision by Minister Kierath, the City can only monitor the size of the trucks (tankers) and number of trucks leaving the property.
Local governments do not provide groundwater extraction licences for privately owned land in the metropolitan area.
The City supports the efforts of Minister McGurk in using scientists at DWER to work with the company to determine whether there is an impact from their operations on groundwater and the environment, and to share the outcomes of this research with the community.
