South Australian Consolidated Acts

WATER RESOURCES ACT 1997 - SECT 122

122—Declaration of levies by the Minister

        (1)         The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, declare a levy or levies payable by persons who are authorised by a water licence or under section 11 to take water from a prescribed watercourse, lake or well or to take surface water from a surface water prescribed area.

        (2)         A levy can only be declared if—

            (a)         the water resource is within the catchment area of a catchment water management board; or

            (b)         a report referred to in section 121 has been prepared and has been published in the manner set out in that section in relation to the water resource during the immediately preceding five years.

        (3)         Where the water resource is in the catchment area of a board, a levy declared by the Minister under this section must be set at a level that will return an amount that is as near as reasonably practicable to the amount stated in the board's catchment water management plan as the amount to be raised by way of levy under this Division.

        (4)         A levy is not invalid because it raises more or less than the amount referred to in subsection (3) or, in the case of a levy in relation to a water resource in relation to which a report has been prepared and published under section 121, more or less than the amount of the estimated cost of management proposals set out in the report.

        (4a)         A water plan, or a report under section 121, may include proposals for money raised through the imposition of a levy in one or more years to be expended in a subsequent year or years (and a levy may be declared on this basis).

        (5)         Levies may be declared for the right to take water or for the water taken or both (but not in relation to the taking of water for domestic purposes or for watering stock that are not subject to intensive farming).

        (6)         A levy for the right to take water can only be declared in respect of water to be taken pursuant to a licence and the amount of the levy must be based on the quantity of water allocated by the licence.

        (7)         The amount of a levy for water taken must be based on the quantity of water taken.

        (8)         Different levies may be declared in respect of the same water resource based on—

            (a)         the quantity of water allocated or taken; and

            (b)         one or more of the following factors:

                  (i)         the part of the resource from which the water may be, or is, taken;

                  (ii)         the purpose for which the water will be used;

                  (iii)         in the case of the River Murray—the effect that the use of the water may have on salinity levels in the River Murray and, if this effect on salinity levels is applied as a differentiating factor with respect to a group of licences—

                        (A)         the location where the water is entitled to be used; and

                        (B)         the time when the allocation was made.

        (8a)         Different levies for the right to take water may be declared in respect of the same water resource based on whether the water allocation is a water (taking) allocation or a water (holding) allocation.

        (8b)         If a levy has a component based on the factor referred to in subsection (8)(b)(iii), money raised from the levy that is attributable to that component must be applied towards reducing salinity levels in the River Murray.

        (8c)         Nothing in this section prevents the Minister or a catchment water management board transferring money within the ambit of subsection (8b) to another authority (including, in the case of a catchment water management board, to the Minister) for expenditure on programs to reduce salinity levels in the River Murray.

        (9)         A notice under subsection (1)—

            (a)         has effect in relation to the financial year specified in the notice; and

            (b)         subject to subsection (10), must be published in the Gazette on or before the first day of that year.

        (10)         A notice under subsection (1) in relation to water to be taken, or that is taken, from a watercourse, lake or well or surface water to be taken, or that is taken, from a particular area of the State may be published in the Gazette within one month after the watercourse, lake or well became a prescribed watercourse, lake or well or the area became a surface water prescribed area.