3.5 Impacts on and risks to water-dependent assets

Summary

The potential impacts on and risks to water-dependent assets due to coal resource developments have been assessed. There are 624 ecological assets that are within or intersect with the zone of potential hydrological change. Of these assets, 20 are in the ‘Groundwater feature (subsurface)’ subgroup, 473 are in the ‘Surface water feature’ subgroup and 131 are in the ‘Vegetation’ subgroup. Of those assets listed in the ‘Vegetation’ subgroup there are 15 species and 6 threatened ecological communities that are listed under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

There are 86 economic assets in the zone of potential hydrological change, 47 of these are in the ‘Groundwater management zone or area’ subgroup and 39 are in the ‘Surface water management zone or area’ subgroup.

Within the assessment extent there are 31 groundwater sources, 9 of which have bores within the groundwater zone of potential hydrological change. There are only 504 bores within the groundwater zone of potential hydrological change that are potentially impacted due to additional coal resource development.

There are 14 sociocultural assets within the zone of potential hydrological change. Of these, 12 assets are heritage sites and 2 are Indigenous sites.