The federal government has conceded it erred by failing to consider public submissions when evaluating a plan by mining giant Adani to pump billions of litres of water from a river in drought-stricken Queensland.

The development, in a court case brought by an environmental group, came as Queensland officials approved Adani's separate groundwater management plan, clearing the last significant environmental hurdle facing the controversial coal project.

The Suttor River in central Queensland, from which Adani intends to pump water to feed its Carmichael coal mine. Credit:Christine Carlisle

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) last year launched legal action challenging a decision made on behalf of former environment minister Melissa Price to waive a full environmental assessment for an Adani pipeline that will extract up to 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River and feed it to the proposed Carmichael mine.

Large coal mines require federal approval if they are likely to have a significant impact on a water resource. This so-called "water trigger" means projects receive a higher level of scrutiny than under local and state assessments, including input from an independent expert scientific committee.