The Great Artesian Basin Protection Group is acting to fight the sale of 1200 megalitres of water from the ancient basin which the NSW Government says is possible thanks to savings made in the cap and pipe the bore scheme.

The group, headed up by Coonamble farmers Neil and Anne Kennedy, argues very little is known about the recharge in the basin.

They say savings are actually just reduced water wastage from old free flowing bores which have been converted to piped troughs.

They also argue there is little incentive for farmers to continue capping and piping bores - a lot of which is at their own expense - if water is then to be auctioned to new users.

The group is organising buses to the auction and is attracting support from farmers in other basin States, particularly from South West Queensland.

One sticking point in the debate is whether farmers actually knew about the auction way back when capping and piping bore programs commenced about a decade ago.

While many farmers say the first they'd heard of the sale was about a month ago, advisory groups on the Great Artesian Basin say the auction was always part of the plan for the GAB.

Western Division farmer and NSW Farmers Association vice president, Graham Morphett, disagrees that there was always a plan to sell basin water "saved" in the cap and pipe program.

Mr Morphett was deputy chairman of the reconstruction program in the Western Division - West 200 Plus - which had a project to cap and pipe bores as one of its main initiatives.

He said the project achieved 22 bores caped in the Western Division, with 300km of open bore drains closed, 700km of water pipe laid, 5250ML of water saved and a total area watered by the new scheme of 344,000ha.

"As a West 2000 director and later deputy chairman, at no time was the sale of any water saved by the cap and pipe scheme discussed or entered our radar," Mr Morphett said.

"The very clear goal was to retain water that was flowing uncontrolled out of the GAB.

"I attended the first official opening of a cap and piped bore east of Lightning Ridge and the spin by government was about the good job the scheme was doing in regaining the water pressure along with the water savings.

"I find it incomprehensible that now the government intends to sell of theses water savings."