Hepburn Shire residents are becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of water being extracted from local bores to be sold back to them in bottles at a price higher than petrol.
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Some residents in Hepburn Shire - a spa country destination marketed on wellness and its mineral springs - have been worried about the amount of water being extracted from farm land for commercial gain from an aquifer at Musk, near Daylesford, for more than a decade.
Ballarat-based company Black Mount Spring Water has been supplying water to bottlers for over 30 years.
The company, started by Brian Carey and now run by his son Tim, started sourcing water from its original spring at Black Hill and now extracts from aquifers around the Ballarat region and right across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.
But it has not come without controversy.
Water extraction
Many Australians have become increasingly worried about the issue of what has been dubbed 'water mining' in the face of drought and climate change, which is making water an increasingly precious commodity.
Black Mount Spring Water first began extracting water from the Wheelers Hill Road property in 2007, when some residents began to express their concerns.
The permit provided by Goulburn Murray Water (GMW) allows the company to extract up to 80 megalitres (80 million litres) of water from the Wheelers Hill property each year.
In a decade this amounts to eight hundred million litres of water taken from that property alone.
Rather than being used for agriculture, this water is taken outside of the area on B-Double trucks - that each carry 38,000 litres of water - to be bottled and sold.
According to an IBIS World report, the water bottling industry in Australia is worth more than $700 million.
In the past, concerns have been published in Australian Community Media newspapers about the company allegedly breaching a number of conditions outlined on its permit for the property, with some residents claiming they had noticed a reduction in water in their bores and others claiming to notice trucks travelling along Wheelers Hill road outside of the hours outlined in its permit.
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Community concern
Save Daylesford Water campaigner Helen Hayes said there were consistent reports of bores running dry in the region, wells without water and creeks and streams no longer running as water levels fall.
"Creeks such as Leitches Creek that used to run year-round and support wildlife, including the platypus, are now only running intermittently following heavy rainfall. Some of the springs that used to provide water to visitors and locals are now dry or contaminated through water depletion."
Ms Hayes said the lack of knowledge around how water extraction was changing local dams, bores, waterways and the environment at large was worrying.
She said the overuse of aquifers was highly damaging to the environment and that when they are depleted, normal water supplies run low, causing a ripple effect.
"This affects forests and wildlife as well as the livelihoods of people who depend on regular water. Hepburn Shire is based on such an economy. Water is the life blood of this area and water depletion is catastrophic," she said. "The whole ecology of the area can change permanently."
Ms Hayes is concerned about declining groundwater levels not just in Musk, but around Australia and wants to see the laws tightened and changes implemented to protect traditional water use.
The effect of bottling water is known to be environmentally destructive, wasteful of natural resources, and less healthy than most tap water in Australia.
- Helen Hayes
"[It is] at a high cost to local business, economies and the environment that we are losing. The water bottling business is about selling our own water back to us in a bottle and charging us more than the cost of petrol for the privilege."
She said there was a pressing need to better manage groundwater and only extract it when conditions allow but though water levels are decreasing, there was a lack of sufficient monitoring or control over commercial extractors.
"There are waterways, creeks, rivers and streams, forests, wildlife as well as food production that require good flows. There are also the livelihoods of people who live in the areas where aquifers can be tapped for profit who are being put at risk. These communities are affected by large-scale extraction of water from aquifers such as the one at Musk," she said.
This was echoed by Musk resident Eleonore Pierson, who has long been concerned the issues around groundwater are not being taken seriously by the water authority.
She said many Musk residents believed their bore and well levels had dropped somewhat since the company set up in the tiny town more than a decade ago and though she had been pushing for action for increased monitoring and more transparency, nothing had changed.
Hepburn Shire Council's chief executive officer, Evan King, said both the council and its Mineral Springs Reserves Advisory Committee were concerned about how potential decreasing groundwater levels could be affecting the shire's mineral water levels.
"Council has written to GMW as the responsible authority for the management of groundwater bores seeking information about the sustainability and long-term viability of the aquifers in this region," Mr King said.
"This included a request to confirm the processes and procedures around frequency of water level monitoring, process if water levels are noted as reducing, any long-term sustainability plans and how these items are considered when assessing new license applications."
He said the council has also had concerns raised about the company's compliance with operating hours and undertakes surveillance of compliance with planning permit conditions.
Due to its being an active issue the council could not provide further details.
Family business
Black Mount Spring Water's Tim Carey said the company extracted less than the amount outlined on its permit each year.
He said the larger than 180-acre property had a large catchment with an "outstanding source of sustainable water".
"We supply water right around the country but Musk would be one of the best sites around in terms of recharge, sustainability and quality," he said.
There are various bores on the Wheelers Hill property from which the extracted water supplies both small and large bottlers throughout Melbourne.
In order to manage the supply, the company undertakes full hydro geological surveys which are sent to GMW, who also visits the site every 12 months.
Mr Carey pushed aside concerns about the sustainability of the supply saying the bore levels had never been affected in either wet or dry times.
He said all of the bores have data loggers to read the levels, measure flow rates and the water temperature while workers also take daily micro samples and monthly chemistry samples to identify any changes.
"We are absolutely comfortable that what we do has no impact on groundwater supplies. Certainly irrigation and commercial use of water has a much greater impact," he said.
"We supply water which is bottled and consumed by people. It is the healthiest beverage anyone can get out of the fridge so I think it's a wonderful industry."
Mr Carey said the industry takes only about 0.01 per cent of all of the groundwater that is extracted in Australia, with more than 90 per cent being used for irrigation.
Push for change
Residents in north east Victoria were incensed when the company moved into their quiet, tiny town about five years ago.
The residents of the nut, berry and apple growing district in Indigo Shire banded together when the company bought an orchard and secured a permit to extract 19 million litres of water from the Stanley plateau each year, which was then transported to the Asahi bottling plant in Albury.
The residents were involved in a four year battle to stop water mining in the area, taking it all the way to the high court.
The residents lost their battle, leaving them tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket but are now trying to change the legislation in relation to the planning and water act to bring about change.
President of Stanley Rural Community Incorporated Ed Tyrie said the group was calling for more transparency around licensing with communities and for the legislation to be tightened in relation to the extraction of water.
Mr Tyrie said it did not matter whether the company took one or a million megalitres out of the ground, it had the potential to affect the whole agricultural district.
He said even if the water bottling industry does take less than 0.01 per cent of groundwater in Australia for bottling, the impact it has on communities is the issue.
Monitoring water levels
Licenses are administered by water corporations, in this case Goulburn Murray Water (GMW), which assesses applications under the Water Act 1989.
Musk falls within the Central Victorian Mineral Springs Groundwater Management Area.
Matthew Pethybridge, GMW manager of groundwater and streams, said groundwater in the area was "highly valued" and shared between the environment, domestic and stock users, irrigated agriculture, commercial users and urban communities.
All groundwater licence applications are assessed on their potential to impact on surrounding users and the environment, so as to ensure long-term sustainability of the resource.
- Matthew Pethybridge, GMW
The current licensed volume for extraction from the area is 5036.6 ML of water each year. The government's cap for the area is 6024 ML litres a year.
Mr Pethybridge said the water levels are monitored by 47 state observation bores throughout the region, while those at Musk are monitored on a quarterly basis.
From a Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning map, there appear to be four observation bores around Musk.
A government spokesperson said there was a rigorous process in place for the ongoing monitoring of groundwater levels across the state.
"All groundwater licences are metered and read at least once per year to ensure licence holders are not taking more water than they are authorised," he said.
"This helps to ensure we are balancing the needs of the environment, domestic and stock users, irrigated agriculture, commercial users and urban communities when it comes to managing this precious resource."
History
Community concerns have been raised in letters written to the The Advocate newspaper since 2007. Another story published in The Advocate newspaper in August 2009 reported that some aquifers in the area had dropped by 15 metres in a decade.
"To date little progress has been made to limit or control this permanent loss of water to the area. There are insufficient observation bores near where the water is extracted to measure ground water loss, and the effects on local waterways and there seems to be no laws nor will for future-proofing against declining water levels," Ms Hayes said.