David Kettle Consulting Pty Limited v Gosford City Council

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

New South Wales Land and Environment Court

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

01/10/2008

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Adaptation

SUBJECT MATTER

Water

REVIEW TYPE

Merits review

SUMMARY

Coca-Cola Amatil (Aust) appealed conditions imposed on its license for commercial water extraction. The license established the maximum extraction rate and total extraction level. The Court considered, inter alia, whether the permitted level of water extraction from the aquifer under the license should be modified. The single parties’ expert concluded that the company’s present level of extraction did not have an adverse impact on the aquifer. The expert gave evidence that the data he relied on assumed continuation of past rainfall and aquifer recharge patterns. The Court held that recent information published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made the validity of such assumptions improbable. The significant increase in the rate of climate change, and the inherent uncertainty of limited data, together meant that a cautious approach was justified. Therefore the Court found that the appropriate approach would be for the Department to make an assessment on the maximum level and rate of extraction at the time of the license expiration in 2011, based on an additional two years of data from the site.

CASE DOCUMENTS

David Kettle Consulting Pty Limited v Gosford City Council [2008] NSWLEC 1385