THE Namoi region was the subject of the most Natural Resources Access Regulator investigations in the state in the first quarter of this year, with 73 taking place.
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However, only 13 of those were finalised - the lowest figure in the state - indicating there are a large amount of investigations still underway.
Of the 13 that were completed, over a third of them resulted in disciplinary action with one statutory notice and four formal warnings being handed out.
One direction and stop work order was also issued, but no penalty notices were handed out.
More than 2000 properties were inspected across the state, which is quite a high number according to director regional water regulation west, Graeme White.
"That is a high amount because we've had this routine monitoring pilot running so we've been able to get out to more sites than we have historically," he said.
The use of more advanced technology has also played a major role in the increase, with satellites now being used to dams.
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Of all water users inspected between January and March, 68 per cent were found to be compliant in regards to their specific laws.
The most common problems were associated with oversized pumps and bores, metering and logbooks, and Mr White said these problems occur for a range of different regions.
"It's a bit of mixed bag, people have been issued licences and it's a bit of a set and forget thing so people haven't been keeping up with the latest of what they should be doing," he said.
"Record keeping is also a bit of an issue when you go out on farms and ask people to see their logbooks."
Getting new meters with up-to-date technology can act as a solution in some situations said Mr White, given it often reduces the amount of manual input and effort required.
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