28 March 2008
Key Points:
The significance of water or in the case of Australia, the lack of it, is driving water reform in a number of areas and a growing number of infrastructure projects are coming on stream in an effort to tackle the water crisis.
In response to these developments, Clayton Utz has created a specialist Water Group to provide legal advice to all major water industry participants, from key investors and major water users to regulators and suppliers of water services.
The Group, led by Brisbane partner Dan Howard and Melbourne partner Michael Tuckfield, has members spread across a number of Clayton Utz offices who are experts in environment and planning, energy and resources, corporate, finance, LDR, mining and competition.
Dan said water was an increasingly important issue for a number of the firm's clients and setting up the Group was an important move.
"With the change in climate and the rugged nature of Australia, water, while always being a valuable commodity, has become a critical resource for Australia. Water is no longer regarded as a freely available resource and there is increasing focus on sustainable and integrated management," he said.
"As a result, water law as a speciality is a developing area of legal practice and it was important to pool together our resources from across our various groups and offices to address this."
In recent times CU has advised on water recycling and desalination projects, water treatment and wastewater facilities, access issues and pipeline projects in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The firm has provided advice across a range of commercial aspects including supply, regulatory issues, policy and legislative developments, planning and environment aspects, contracting and tendering arrangements and project finance.
Dan said that now was a very interesting time for those interested in and working with water related projects as the legal work was varied and in some cases, very challenging.
"Recently we have been involved in the supply of water from coal seam methane production to local authorities in rural areas that are struggling to access sufficient water supplies for their communities," he said.
"This project required the development of innovative legal arrangements to facilitate the supply and treatment of this new source of water.
"There is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from working on arrangements that ultimately provide a benefit to the community and when working with water projects this is often the case."
