Brewarrina cotton grower fined $57,000 for taking water illegally

A disconnected cable alerted a regulator to 290 Olympic swimming pools of water taken illegally on a Brewarrina cotton farm.

A Brewarrina cotton grower took 290 Olympic swimming pools of water illegally to irrigate his cotton crops in 2017.

Brewarrina cotton grower Tony Thompson has been fined $57,000, plus $135,000 in costs, for illegally pumping 290 Olympic swimming pools of water in 2017.

In a judgment handed down on April 29, the NSW Land and Environment Court found Mr Thompson had pumped at least 734ML of water from the Barwon River over several months to irrigate a cotton crop on his property while a water meter was not working.

Judge Rachel Pepper found Mr Thompson’s offences were in the “low range” of seriousness because he had admitted guilt at the earliest opportunity and expressed “genuine contrition and remorse”.

The NSW Natural Resources Access Regulator was made aware of the offences after a NSW Water field officer conducted a routine check of Mr Thompson’s property and found a cable connected to the body of the DT5 data logger was hanging down and was not attached to anything.

Satellite imagery played a big role in understanding the scale of the water take on Mr Thompson’s cotton farm, according to NRAR. Image: EO Browser, Sinergise Ltd/ NRAR

In subsequent emails and interviews with Water NSW and NRAR, Mr Thompson agreed that no data from the data logger had been recorded after January 21, 2017.

Mr Thompson admitted he had pumped water for 261.5 hours over 13 days from April 21 to May 3 in 2017. He estimated he had taken 734ML of water over that time.

Mr Thompson told investigators he only became aware that his data logger wasn’t working when the Water NSW field officer informed him.

Mr Thompson said he had “assumed (the data logger) was working”, and his failure to meter the water was “not deliberate”.

He agreed that he was “absolutely” responsible for the data logger not being connected and operating.

Mr Thompson was charged with two offences – taking water in contravention of what was allowed under his water licence, and taking water while a water meter wasn’t working. The maximum penalty for each offence was $247,500. Mr Thompson was fined a total of $57,000.

He received discounted fines because he admitted guilt and “openly and proactively responded to the incident once he was aware of it,” Justice Pepper said.

“In particular, he identified and implemented measures to prevent recurrence of the commission of the offences, namely, the installation of a tamper-proof meter,” she said.

NRAR chief regulatory officer Grant Barnes said it was crucial that landholders knew the rules related to their water access licence and abided by them.

“Accurate measurement of how much water is being taken is fundamental to public confidence in the fair and efficient management of water in NSW,” Mr Barnes said.