The Office of Water Science (OWS) provides scientific advice to the Commonwealth regulator on potential direct impacts to water resources, and indirect impacts to Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) that arise through impacts to the water resources on which they rely. Advice is provided on a wide range of projects across many industry sectors including the resources sector. This advice allows regulators to incorporate leading-practice science into their decision-making processes.
The OWS has undertaken a review of recent scientific advice that they have provided to the Commonwealth regulator, with a focus on resource sector projects. The review aimed to highlight, in relation to potential groundwater impact assessments, areas where the information and data provided by proponents was limited. When knowledge gaps are identified in impact assessments this often results in the proponent being asked to provided further information and data or undertake additional studies. Fulfilment of these requirements can be required either prior to an assessment decision or as part of management plans which commonly require approval at an early project stage. This may cause project timeframes to increase and can affect the proponents operational planning.
This review has resulted in a better understanding of the key areas (relating to groundwater) where further data and information on potential impacts is often requested from proponents and issues that many be conditioned by the regulator with requirements for further studies. The presentation discusses the results of this review and provides examples of the variability in data and information received from proponents.
The findings of this study identify areas for improvement in both impacts assessment and communication of impact assessment outcomes. This may assist proponents to meet their forecast project timeframes and aid in operational planning.