New South Wales Non-Urban Water Metering & Telemetry Rollout Progresses to Coastal Regions

As we approach four years since implementation of the NSW Non-Urban Water Metering Policy the focus is finally shifting to coastal NSW. For landholders and DQP’s in these areas, we will guide you on the requirements and what to expect moving forward.

For Non-Urban Water Users/Land Holders:

1. Check whether your current meter installation or planned works must be made compliant¹

The following Table lays out the exact requirements of the policy, illustrated graphically in Figure 2.

If you are a water user in the Coastal region outlined above (Figure 1), At-Risk Groundwater will not apply to your works in the coastal region.

If you need clarification on this, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) has a guidance tool on their Non-Urban Metering Page with work approval and access license specific requirements. For multiple works with a pump or bore above the relevant maximum (Figure 3), you must comply with the Non-Urban Water Metering Framework and NSW Non-Urban Metering Policy.

2. Check Telemetry Requirements

Instances requiring a telemetry connection are shown in Figure 4. Currently the SigSense Captis devices are all telemetry enabled, however, a compliant LID must be telemetry capable. Opting in to telemetry is beneficial to WaterNSW and has the following benefits for the water user:

1. $975 rebate for telemetry sites
2. The only non-telemetry LID retails for roughly $2000², by comparison a Telemetry enabled Sigsense Captis LID is 30-50% more economical.
3. Same ongoing costs.
4. Save time on checking the meter manually if self reporting or wanting to check daily water usage.
5. You are not required to regularly coordinate access to your land & meter with WaterNSW/Meter Readers

3. Contact your local DQP

If you need assistance contacting a DQP contact SigSense support and we will be able to recommend one of our trusted DQP partners. We also have a list of DQP’s participating in the compliance and telemetry rollout.

For DQP’s:

Understanding you are already aware of the above steps, we recommend you look into all LID options so that you may choose SigSense with confidence.

1. Complete your due diligence and meter selection.
2. If your clients’ meter size falls into the non-telemetered category, we recommend advising them of the immediate savings of opting in to telemetry.
3. Request a signal strength test from SigSense and order recommended antenna with Captis Data-Logger. A signal scanner may also be purchased from SigSense for greater accuracy - taking into account unknown on-site conditions.
4. Install Captis and Antenna, with Captis in shaded/protected location and antenna as far from obstructions and elevated as possible (e.g. buildings/foliage/tree cover)

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¹ Compliant with Non-urban Water Metering Framework and NSW Non-Urban Water Metering Policy

² Sourced from WaterNSW Telemetry Fact sheet (https://www.waternsw.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/219321/Telemetry-metering-fact-sheet.pdf)