On 18 November, 2011, long-time Costerfield landowner and farmer Mr Gilbert Cochrane wrote the following letter to his domestic water provider regarding excess water usage at his Heathcote home:
G. J. Cochrane,
***********
Heathcote, 3523.
Re:
Excessive water usage for the above residential property.
To whom it
may concern.
Dear
Sir/Madam,
Regarding
our water bill of 18 February, 2011, I wish to explain our increased
consumption.
We were
not at home for two weeks during the billing period as my wife was in hospital
in Melbourne. During this time our home experienced significant rainfall which
caused increased pressure on our pipes, resulting in one blowing apart at the
join. (Indeed the level of the storage facility which supplies us had to be
lowered because of this excessive rainfall.) When we arrived home I immediately
had the join fixed and the stopcock turned to half to lessen the pressure.
I am
writing this letter in response to a telephone call to your Office where it was
suggested that a written explanation of the matter could possibly result in
your lowering of the cost of our account. As we are old age pensioners, I trust
that you will treat this request sympathetically.
Yours
Sincerely,
G. J.
Cochrane.
See if you can spot the inconsistencies in the manner in which an "irksome... influx of meteoric water" is dealt with, depending on whether you are a mineral extraction company or a ratepayer of the City of Greater Bendigo.
***
From the Costerfield Operations NI43-101 Report prepared for the Toronto Stock Exchange - an explanation of the process and the status as at an effective date of 31 December 2012 (but dated as 28 March 2013) - at that time the licence allowed 179ML/annum of groundwater to be extracted:
So the mine needed to increase its dewatering allowance to cope with the irksome influx of meteoric water. An application was sent to Goulburn-Murray Water in November 2011 and by April 2013...
And here's the rub... the Costerfield PAN Risk Assessment dated October 2013: 
So to the dates:
15 November 2011 - Application to G-MW for increase to Licence BEE006479 -
28 March 2013 - Costerfield Operations NI43-101 -
29 April 2013 - Goulburn-Murray Water approval signed -
October 2013 - Costerfield PAN Risk Assessment -
And so it would appear that here we have documentary confirmation that Goulburn-Murray Water allowed the extraction of up to 584ML/annum under an existing Licence BEE0066479 that allowed just 179ML/annum.
No one bothered to turn the stopcock to halfway.....
And that's actually an increase of 320% not the 220% that SKM figures it; but what do you expect from this mob?
