Performance of the Hunter River Salinity Trading Scheme
The Scheme has proved tremendously successful and is widely supported by the community that contributed to its creation.
We administer the scheme with guidance from an operations committee with representatives of the community, industry and the government. The scheme uses a market-based instrument to successfully address a serious environmental problem.
Summary: 2024–25
With the exception of Rix’s Creek Pty Limited, participants managed their onsite water within the regulatory framework, only discharging during available opportunities.
While there were limited discharge opportunities across all sectors in the first half of the financial year, the wet conditions and subsequent flows from Hunter River tributaries in the second half of the year meant that many opportunities to discharge were provided to scheme participants. In addition to the significant natural flows which occurred in the catchment, participants were able to benefit from the managed releases from the Flood Mitigation Zone of Glenbawn Dam conducted by WaterNSW. This release was carried out with a considered approach to increase flow with the added benefit of maximising the discharge opportunities available to participants.
In 2027, the EPA is commencing a review of the Protection of the Environment Operations (Hunter River Salinity Trading Scheme) Regulation. The review will include an investigation of the Scheme’s operations under extreme weather events to ensure effective ongoing management of salinity in the Hunter River, and will include reviewing the river sector (upper, middle, lower) salinity target levels.
Previous performance reports
Each year we assess and report on the performance of the scheme.
- 2023–24 scheme performance report
- 2022–23 scheme performance report
- 2021–22 scheme performance report
- 2020–21 scheme performance report (PDF 722KB)
- 2019–20 scheme performance report (PDF 469KB)
- 2018–19 scheme performance report (PDF 308KB)
Longer-term scheme performance
While the scheme operates to manage salinity levels in the river as a result of industry discharge, occasional exceedances still occur, caused by diffuse sources of saline runoff. New mines can readily be granted discharge licences, with significant economic and employment benefits for the valley.
However, since the scheme started, river salinity has more consistently been below the salinity target.
These improvements have occurred since higher average rainfall has occurred after the scheme began, granting scheme participants more discharge opportunities and maintaining salinity targets.
The graph below shows that in previous dry spells (in the early 1980s and 1990s) average salinity levels were very high. These have not been repeated during the time since the scheme commenced.
Contact us
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 131 555