Report Estimates Climate Change Adaptation Costs, Impacts to Utilities

http://www.docuticker.com/?p=29274
Climate change impacts to wastewater and drinking water utilities, which provide critical economic, public health, and environmental benefits, include sea level rise and extreme flooding that can inundate and incapacitate treatment facilities; water quality degradation and increased treatment requirements; water scarcity and the need to develop new drinking water supplies; and lower flows in drought conditions that can affect the operation of treatment facilities.

Source: Docuticker

Wild rivers, conservation and Indigenous rights: an impossible balance?

http://www.apo.org.au/research/wild-rivers-conservation-and-indigenous-rights-impossible-balance
This article discusses Queensland's controversial Wild Rivers Act, arguing that it steamrolls Cape York communities’ fundamental rights to culture, land and development.

Source: Australian Policy Online

Environmental sustainability in residential housing

http://www.apo.org.au/research/environmental-sustainability-residential-housing
This positioning paper addresses the attitudes and behaviour towards waste, water and energy consumption and conservation in Australian households

Source: Australian Policy Online

Commercial water and Indigenous Australians: a scoping study of licence allocations

http://www.apo.org.au/research/commercial-water-and-indigenous-australians-scoping-study-licence-allocations
This report is the outcome of a scoping exercise commissioned by the National Water Commission (NWC) to determine the water licences and allocations to Indigenous people for commercial use across all States and Territories (except the Australian Capital Territory) in Australia.

Source: Australian Policy Online

National Indigenous water planning forum

http://www.apo.org.au/research/national-indigenous-water-planning-forum
This report focusses on the Indigenous access provisions of the 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI). It describes the policy mechanisms and processes that have been implemented to date for Indigenous participation in water planning and access to water. The report supplies detailed observations about these processes.

Source: Australian Policy Online

Water use on Australian farms, 2007-08

Australian Bureau of Statistics
This publication presents estimates of agricultural water use, including pastures and crops irrigated. Estimates are presented for Australia, state/territories and Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions, as well as for the Murray-Darling Basin. The estimates are compiled from data collected as part of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) for the year ended 30 June 2008.

Source: Australian Policy Online

Sustainable farm research 'under threat'

Sustainable farming research in Australia is facing a lack of strategic leadership, say experts. Dr John Williams of the Wentworth Group of Scientists was commenting on the planned closure of Land and Water Australia (LWA) announced in last week's Federal Budget. Williams says he has been unable to find any reference in the budget to replace the leadership role played by LWA. "I don't believe [the closure of LWA] has been thought through," says Williams, who is head of the Natural Resources Commission of New South Wales. LWA was set up in 1990 to integrate public good research into farming research. At a cost of $13 million a year, it oversees and funds research programs including those on dryland salinity, pesticide contamination and nutrient run-off.

Source: ABC Environment News in Science

Water trading rules

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
This issues paper outlines the development of water trading rules advice to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA). The MDBA is responsible for preparing the new strategic plan for the integrated and sustainable management of water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin, which will contain water trading rules. In preparing these rules, the MDBA is required to obtain and have regard to the advice from the ACCC.

Source: Australian Policy Online

Water Amendment Bill 2008

The purpose of the bill is to amend the Water Act 2007 (the Water Act) to make changes to the cooperative water planning, management and regulatory regime in the Murray Darling Basin. In particular, the changes reflect agreement by the relevant States and the ACT to refer constitutional powers to the Commonwealth to broaden the Commonwealth’s planning, management and regulatory powers.

Source: Parliamentary Library of Australia