Warrawidgee Station farmer Dean Troy Salvestro ordered to pay over $200,000 after water rights breach

Dean Troy Salvestro of Warrawidgee Station, west of Griffith, was convicted on four counts of contravening the term or condition of approval (approval holder) and one count of take water not in accordance with access licence allocation last week.

The charges relate to the extraction of groundwater over a three year period from the Lower Murrumbidgee Deep Groundwater Source in breach of conditions of approvals and a water access licence.

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Salvestro, along with his wife and other family members, own and operate the station, a family farming business, which cultivates grapes, cotton, wheat, canola, barley, corn and a small number of livestock.

Salvestro manages approximately 12,000 hectares of land within and is a shareholder and director of the farming business.

The court heard Salvestro was the person ultimately responsible for managing the farming business carried out at Warrawidgee Station - including the running the staff, crop planning, irrigation, and all day-to-day operations.

The crops were irrigated through a combination of surface water through private company Murrumbidgee Irrigation and groundwater taken from the Lower Murrumbidgee Deep Groundwater source. It was water taken from the latter source that led to the convictions.

The first offence took place over the 2017/2018 financial year, during which period Salvestro extracted 966.07 ML of groundwater above the 9500 ML limit.

During 2018/2019, he was found to have over extracted 2892.05 ML and a further 2675.03 ML in 2019/2020.

There were two further offences relating to breaches of a water access licence by a total of 819.82 ML during 2019/2020.

An investigation was launched, during which Salvestro participated in a voluntary interview with the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) about the series of breaches.

In September 2020 he told NRAR in regards to the first three offences, that third parties would operate the bores on Warrawidgee Station and that starting and stopping the bores had "not been something I've disciplined."

Salvestro said the water taken by the bores had been used on a variety of crops including cotton, grapes, wheat and corn.

He also revealed there was no training by workers in how to turn the pumps on, nor did they know how to read the meter.

In relation to the last two charges, Salvestro admitted to exceeding the extraction limit during the 2019/2020 period and said he "basically stuffed up with the bloke that I was meant to switch it off and it pumped for an extra day more than what I anticipated."

Court documents revealed Salvestro was "saddened" by the suggestion that he had caused environmental harm "as a result of my production of our food".

Salvestro also pointed out there are different laws around the use of surface water and ground water, which has created "further confusion among many farmers as we must be aware and remain up to date with both sets of rules".

While accepting ultimate responsibility for the management of various water licences and accounts, Salvestro said he relied on others and his bore internet Water Accounting System to help him manage water usage.

In court last week, Salvestro was convicted of the offences and fined $156,250.

He was also ordered to pay $60,000 for NRAR's costs and pay for an advertisement in The Land and The Irrigator declaring his guilt in the matter and warning other farmers to comply with water extraction rules.

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