Valley

What is water for the environment?

Water for the environment is water legally set aside to protect or improve the environmental values of wetlands and streams. Environmental water entitlements are held by the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH), the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA).

This water is held in storages and can be released to meet specific environmental needs. Like other water entitlements, the volume available varies in any given year due to seasonal conditions including rainfall and catchment runoff.

In the Goulburn Broken Catchment, urban and rural water authorities are required to provide passing flows down the Goulburn River, Broken River, Seven Creeks, Sunday Creek, Delatite River and Yea River. Passing flows are the volume of water that urban and rural water authorities are required to release from a storage or provide at a particular point along a stream before consumptive water can be taken.

Above cap water is the water that is available once limits on consumptive volumes of surface water and groundwater have been reached or unregulated flows and spills from storages generated by heavy rainfall.    Water delivered down streams and channels to urban, rural and irrigation water users (consumptive water on route) can also be used to benefit the environment.

In the Goulburn Broken Catchment, consumptive water en route is often used to benefit the environmental values of the Goulburn River and lower Broken Creek. This can reduce the amount of actual environmental water allocations required by these streams.

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The Goulburn Broken CMA acknowledges and respects First Nations people and the deep connection they have with their land and waters.


We acknowledge the Yorta Yorta and Taungurung people and their ancestors/forbears as Traditional Owners of the land and waters in the Goulburn Broken Catchment (and beyond). We value our ongoing partnerships with Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation and Taungurung Land and Waters Council for the health of Country and its people.


We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge and recognise the primacy of Traditional Owners obligations, rights and responsibilities to use and care for their traditional lands and waters.

Shepparton
168 Welsford Street, PO Box 1752, Shepparton VIC 3630
T (03) 5822 7700
F (03) 5831 6254

Benalla
89 Sydney Road, PO Box 124, Benalla VIC 3672
T (03) 5822 7700

Yea
Shop 5/10 High Street, Yea VIC 3717
T (03) 5822 7700