New Water Policy and Practice Issue 4, Number 1, Fall 2017 | Page 48

New Water Policy & Practice Journal
Drinking Water Source Protection in Western Australia
The WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER),
formally the Department of Water, is the water resource owner in the state.
DWER is responsible for the identification and management of water re-
sources including public drinking water source areas (PDWSA). PDWSA
boundaries are defined based on the catchment area of surface water sourc-
es; all or part of the recharge area for unconfined groundwater sources; and
the area immediately surrounding each drinking water bore in a confined
groundwater source (Department of Water 2016a). Within these PDWSA
boundaries, DWER regulates and protects water quality through assigning
priority areas to guide land-use decisions. Priority 1 areas in a PDWSA are
managed with the objective of risk avoidance; priority 2 areas are managed
with the objective of risk minimization; and priority 3 as risk management.
The DWER’s Water Quality Protection Note No. 25: Land use compatibility
tables for public drinking water source areas was developed to guide land-use
planning decisions in PDWSA (Department of Water 2016b). PDWSA are
captured in state planning, and the WA Department of Planning, Lands and
Heritage’s State Planning Policy 2.7: Public drinking water source policy en-
sures that priority is given to the protection of drinking water by preventing
incompatible land uses in PDWSA (Government of Western Australia 2011).
In 1994, the Water and Rivers Commission, now DWER, delegated
the responsibility of drinking water source protection to the Corporation.
This includes the management of over 700 bores and 114 surface water
sources across WA in accordance with the requirements in the Corporation’s
MoU with the DoH. Despite the challenge of effectively protecting and oper-
ating a vast number of sources over a large geographical area, as mentioned
above, the Corporation and DWER own little of the land in some PDWSA.
Therefore, the Corporation is reliant on external processes, particularly DW-
ER’s assignment of priority areas, and responsible land management by land
owners in PDWSA for the protection of drinking water quality.
Pesticide Risk in PDWSA
In WA, the DoH and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA)
provide licenses, training, and regulation for the use of pesticides (Office of
the Auditor General 2015). All pesticides are approved by the Australian Pes-
ticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and must be used as per the label,
license, and permit instructions. In PDWSA, Government Departments and
their contractors must follow the DoH’s Circular No: PSC 88: Use of herbi-
cides in water catchment areas, which includes best practice herbicide use
and management (Department of Health 2006). For the use of other herbi-
cides or pesticides not included in PSC 88, DoH approval must be sought.
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