Report suspicious activities

Report a suspicious activity as soon as possible and provide the following information:

• the type of suspicious activity
• the time, date and location of the activity
• the name of the person who is doing the activity, or a description of the person, if known
• details of vehicles involved (description, registration numbers and the type of vehicle or machinery), if known
• any other information you think could be relevant.

When you provide information to us, we have a set of expectations we need you to meet:

• you will not intentionally provide any wrong or misleading information
• you will provide a clear description of the activity
• you will give us all the information you have, including any new information that may come to hand
• you will cooperate with our inquiries and answer any questions promptly
• you will treat our staff with courtesy and respect
• you will allow our response to be finalised before taking the matter elsewhere unless asked to by NRAR.

If you do not meet these expectations, we may set limits or conditions for continuing our response.

Unreasonable conduct, including making a complaint for no reason, will be handled according to the NSW Ombudsman’s Managing Unreasonable Complainant Conduct Manual 2012.

NRAR considers the risk-level of each suspicious activity reported.

All reports received are recorded in a database.  We assess every report and decide which ones need our immediate attention.

We may determine that no law has been broken. Or find the reported activity is a low priority.  We may assign it to ongoing work instead of investigating right away.

We rank reports based on their urgency and impact. We focus on activities that cause serious harm to water sources or cause major damage to the environment.

Other factors we consider before investigating further are whether:

• the report relates to water laws and falls under NRAR’s jurisdiction. Another regulator or agency may be better suited to investigate (for example, the local council, NSW Department of Primary Industries - Fisheries, or the NSW Environment Protection Authority
• the activity is, in fact, lawful (for example, a water user is obeying their licence conditions)
• considerable time has passed since the reported activity took place. This would affect our ability to investigate
• there is a repeated pattern of illegal activity or evidence of a more widespread problem
• the person or organisation has had previous reports made about them for similar reasons
• the report aligns with one of our regulatory priorities
• investigating would use a lot of resources, which does not appear to be justified
• the report relates to a matter already investigated. And the report does not add any further information that would change our decision.

If you have provided a postal or email address in your report, you will receive a confirmation letter or email.

An NRAR officer reviewing your report may contact you if they need more information.

If we investigate further, an officer may contact you. If you agree, they may take a witness statement, if the evidence you can provide is very important. A witness statement may be made available to the alleged offender if it goes to court. A witness statement may form part of our case.

If you have concerns about your safety because of the report, we will take these seriously. But this could make it harder for us to act on the report.

We will manage your privacy and all the information you provide according to the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.

We receive reports from neighbours involved in disagreements unrelated to illegal water activities. Examples include boundary fence disputes, an irrigator watering a neighbouring property or a storm causing a creek to erode a neighbour’s land.

When a dispute between neighbours is unrelated to an illegal water activity, it will likely be a civil or private matter. We will not respond to or resolve these types of matters.

LawAccess NSW and Community Justice Centres may be able to help resolve these disagreements.

When investigating reports of alleged breaches of water law, we will:

• confirm that there has been a breach of water law
• confirm the harm or impact of the alleged breach
• identify the likelihood of the illegal activity happening again
• determine any regulatory actions to lessen any harm or potential harm caused
• decide on the appropriate regulatory response
• gather evidence to support the appropriate regulatory response

For detailed information about NRAR’s response to alleged breaches, read our FAQs on responding to alleged breaches.

We will also consider the severity of reports in responding to alleged breaches. We will respond more urgently to reports of alleged breaches that are causing serious, ongoing harm to a water source or the environment.

We will resolve unlawful activities to our satisfaction, not to the satisfaction of the person making the report. Where we are unable to find enough evidence, limited action may result. We may review the report again if new information becomes available.

The complexity of medium and high-priority cases will determine our response. If we consider prosecution, collecting the required evidence may take over two years.