Catchment Management Plan - Hunter Water

Part 2: Our drinking water catchments2.0 IntroductionPart 2: Our drinking watercatchments identifies the broad risksto source water found in our catchmentsand gives a snapshot of current watersource quality. It describes in more detailthe catchments and water source fromwhich Hunter Water extracts raw water.There are currently six legislatedcatchments from which Hunter Water islicensed to extract. These are definedin the Hunter Water Regulation 2010.Hunter Water recently expanded its areaof operations to include the DungogShire which resulted in an additionalcatchment, the Paterson and AllynRivers, which have not been defined inlegislation.2.1 The region’s heritageHunter Water’s drinking watercatchments link the dunes of StocktonBight and the World Heritage BarringtonTops. The catchments traverse a mosaicof land use, including agriculturalproperties, water catchment reserves,national parks, nature reserves, stateforests, riparian reserves, roadsidereserves, stock routes and otherpublic land. Communities vary fromdensely populated urban centres torural communities and indigenousconservation lands.The drinking water catchments arewithin the traditional country of fourindigenous communities: Worimi,Karuah, Mindaribba and Wanaruah(Figure 4). The landscape containssignificant cultural and natural valuesof importance to the traditionallandowners, who have a long history ofliving in sympathy with the environment.Indigenous knowledge of landmanagement and ecological resiliencecan play an important role in caring forthe catchments.Figure 4: Indigenous communities within the regionCATCHMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN . ssS . 001 . JUNE201010