NSW – Changes to contaminated land legislation passed
Wednesday 10 December 2008
On 9.12.08 the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Carmel Tebbutt, announced the Government will be in a stronger position to manage contaminated lands following changes to laws passed by the NSW Parliament last week.
Ms Tebbutt said the changes made under the Contaminated Land Management Amendment Bill 2008 would ensure more responsive laws and enable swifter and tougher regulatory action if required.
The amendments give new powers to order an investigation and streamline the process between the investigation and remediation stages of a contaminated site.
Other changes include:
-
Clarification that more than one individual may be responsible for contamination;
-
Clarification that a person can be responsible for contamination due to inaction – i.e. failure to prevent contamination;
-
Clearer definition of what triggers are needed to report contamination;
-
Allowing the Minister to enter into off-set programs in the public interest through which the polluter can mitigate the community impacts of the contamination while remediation is being carried out;
-
Allow for conditions to be placed on voluntary agreements.
Another change during 2008 relates to the commencement of the new Protection of the Environment Operations (Underground Petroleum Storage Systems) Regulation 2008.
Known as the UPSS Regulation, it commenced on 1 June 2008. The purpose of the UPSS is to enable the early detection of leaks from underground petroleum storage systems to avoid long and costly clean up operations.
The Regulation imposes obligations on those persons who have management and control of a UPSS, i.e. the person responsible for the system. One example suggests this may include land owners, lessees and operators of service stations. Penalties apply for non-compliance with the requirements of the UPSS Regulation and these are on top of any penalties imposed under the Act where a person is found to have polluted waters or land by allowing petroleum or other substances to escape from a UPSS.
The UPSS Regulation applies to tanks and associated piping which are completely or partially buried and contain petroleum. Specifically, a UPSS is defined as a storage system that does not include vent or vapour recovery piping, but does include:
-
One or more tanks which are completely or partially buried in the ground and contained, or are intended to contain, petroleum.
-
Any piping to, from or associated with the tanks, to the inlet port of any dispensers.
For the purposes of the Regulation “Petroleum” means any fuel that consists predominantly of a mixture of hydrocarbons derived from crude oil, whether or nor the fuel includes additives (such as ethanol), and includes used oil.
More detailed information will be advised to members directly.
