Environment Protection Authority

Transmittal Certificate

Compliance Statement

The 2018-19 Environment Protection Authority Annual Report must comply with the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Directions 2019 (the Directions) made under section 8 of the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004. The Directions are found at the ACT Legislation Register: https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/View/ni/2019-296/current/PDF/2019-296.PDF

The Compliance Statement indicates the subsections, under Parts 1 to 6 of the Directions, that are applicable to the Environment Protection Authority and the location of information that satisfies these requirements:

Part 1 Directions Overview

The requirements under Part 1 of the Directions relate to the purpose, timing and distribution, and records keeping of annual reports. The 2018-19 Environment Protection Authority Annual Report complies with all subsections of Part 1 under the Directions.

To meet Section 15 Feedback, Part 1 of the Directions, contact details for the Environment Protection Authority are provided within the 2018-19 Environment Protection Authority Annual Report to provide readers with the opportunity to provide feedback.

Part 2 Agency Annual Report Requirements

The requirements within Part 2 of the Directions are mandatory for all reporting entities and the Environment Protection Authority complies with all subsections. The information that satisfies the requirements of Part 2 is found in the 2018-19 Environment Protection Authority Annual Report as follows:

• A. Transmittal Certificate, see page 363;
• B. Organisational Overview and Performance Analysis subsections, see pages 365-379. All other subsections in Section B, Part 2 of the Directions are contained within the 2018-19 CMTEDD Annual Report; and
• C. Financial Management Reporting, inclusive of all subsections, is contained within the 2018-19 CMTEDD Annual Report.

Part 3 Reporting by Exception

The Environment Protection Authority has nil information to report by exception under Part 3 of the Directions for the 2018-19 reporting year.

Part 4 Directorate and Public Sector Body Specific Annual Report Requirements

There are no specific annual report requirements for the Environment Protection Authority.

Part 5 Whole of Government Annual Reporting

All subsections of Part 5 of the Directions apply to the Environment Protection Authority. Consistent with the Directions, the information satisfying these requirements is reported in the one place for all reporting entities as follows:

• L. The 2018-19 Justice and Community Safety Annual Report includes the following subsections:
  • L.1 Bushfire Risk Management;
  • L.2 Human Rights;
  • L.3 Legal Services Directions;
• M. The 2018-19 CMTEDD Annual Report includes the annexed 2018-19 Director of Territory Records Annual Report (see page 345); and
• Public Sector Standards and Workforce Profile, see the 2018-19 ACT Public Service State of the Service Report.

ACT Public Service directorate annual reports are found at the following web address: http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/open_government/report/annual_reports

Legislative Framework and Functions

The Environment Protection Authority (the Authority) is a statutory public servant position established by the Environment Protection Act 1997. It is currently assigned to the Senior Director of the Environment Protection Authority within Access Canberra. The Authority is supported by the Office of the Environment Protection Authority (also referred to as the EPA) within Access Canberra, to carry out its functions.

The EPA administers the follow legislation:

• Environment Protection Act 1997;
• Environment Protection Regulation 2005;
• Water Resources Act 2007;
• Water Resource Regulation 2007;
• Lakes Act 1976;
• Lakes Regulation 2019; and
• Clinical Waste Act 1990.

Overview of Functions

Environment Protection Act 1997

The Authority oversees the administration of the Environment Protection Act 1997 and the Environment Protection Regulation 2005, which provide for the protection of the environment and for related purposes.

The objectives of the Environment Protection Act 1997 are to:

• protect and enhance the quality of the environment;
• prevent environmental degradation and risk of harm to human health;
• achieve effective integration of environmental, economic and social consideration in decision-making processes;
• establish a single and integrated regulatory framework for environmental protection and provide for monitoring and reporting of environmental quality on a regular basis;
• facilitate the implementation of national environment protection measures and laws;
• ensure contaminated land is managed having regard to human health and the environment; and
• encourage responsibility by the whole community for the environment – general environmental duty of care.

Water Resources Act 2007

The Authority has responsibility for administering the Water Resources Act 2007 and the Water Resources Regulation 2007, which provides for sustainable management of the water resources of the Territory, and for other purposes.

The objects of the Water Resources Act 2007 are to:

• ensure that management and use of the water resources of the Territory sustain the physical, economic and social wellbeing of the people of the ACT while protecting the ecosystems that depend on those resources;
• protect aquatic ecosystems and aquifers from damage and, where practicable, to reverse damage that has already happened; and
• ensure that the water resources are able to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations.

Lakes Act 1976

The Senior Director Office of the Environment Protection Authority holds the statutory position of Delegate for Lakes (the Delegate), responsible for administering the Lakes Act 1976 and the Lakes Regulation 2019 which provide for the administration, control and use of certain lakes.

The Delegate is responsible for approving structures and activities (such as motorised boat activities) on designated lakes and waterways in the ACT and lake closures in the event of a threat to human health or the environment, for example, pollution or emergency incidents/discharges, special events, blue green algae outbreak.

Clinical Waste Act 1990

The Senior Director Office of the Environment Protection Authority holds the statutory position of Clinical Waste Controller under the Clinical Waste Act 1990 with responsibility for the treatment, storage, transportation and disposal of clinical waste.

Compliance Framework

The EPA applies an engage, educate and enforce compliance model, the three fundamental steps used by Access Canberra. Compliance is encouraged through education, however escalating enforcement actions will be applied to those whose conduct will, or is likely to cause harm, or those who demonstrate a disregard for the law.

The EPA carries out both proactive and reactive activities that are risk-based, with resources allocated based on the level of risk posed to the strategic objectives as outlined in the Environment Protection Compliance Framework which can be found on the Access Canberra website at: https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/s/article/access-canberra-accountability-commitment.

Where an issue is identified, the EPA seeks to resolve the issue before it leads to an adverse impact on human health or the environment.

Reactive monitoring relies on the community, business or industry reporting environmental concerns or events, such as pollution of our environment, or illegal water use.

Information and guidelines for industry and the general public in relation to our legislation is available on the Access Canberra website. Information is also routinely shared through social media, radio and print platforms informing the community of their environmental obligations, whilst providing important updates which may influence better decision making by individuals.

This Annual Report summarises the activities and performance of the EPA in 2018-19.

Environment Protection Act 1997

Environmental Authorisations

An Environmental Authorisation (Authorisation) is a form of licence granted under section 49 of the Environment Protection Act 1997. An Authorisation sets out the conditions under which activities with a significant potential to cause environmental harm may be conducted. Authorisations granted for an unlimited period are subject to review at least every five years based on an assessment of the activity and the authorisation holder.

In 2018-19, 39 Authorisations were granted, bringing the number of Authorisations administered to 304 (refer to Table 1). During this period, 115 authorisations were reviewed and 60 varied.

Note: * There are 304 Environmental Authorisations, some of which are for multiple activities, hence the total by activity type is 312.

Environmental Protection Agreements

Section 38 of the Environment Protection Act 1997 (the Act) provides for the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to enter into Environmental Protection Agreements (Agreements) generally for the purpose of the Act. This section also allows Agreements to be used instead of an authorisation where people are conducting certain activities that entail a moderately significant risk of environmental harm (those listed in Schedule 1 Class B of the Act; see also subsection 42(2) of the Act).

Agreements are designed to assist businesses manage their environmental performance. The term of an Agreement is generally three years.

In 2018-19, the EPA entered into 42 Agreements, bringing the number of Agreements administered by the EPA to 139 (refer to Table 2).

Note: Of the 139 agreements, 126 relate to builders and developers undertaking construction works on sites greater than 0.3 hectares.

Erosion and Sediment Control Plans

A condition of an Agreement is endorsement by the EPA of an erosion and sediment control plan prior to works commencing.

During 2018-2019 (refer to Table 3):

• the EPA received and endorsed 88 erosion and sediment control plans; and
• conducted 1,752 inspections of development sites.

Note: *This was for construction sites greater than 0.3 ha, the figure for 2018-2019 includes residential sites less than 0.3ha.

Contaminated Land Notifications

The EPA received 14 contaminated land notifications under section 23A of the Environment Protection Act 1997 during the 2018-19 reporting period. The notifications related to hydrocarbon impacts and per and poly-fluoralkyl substance impacts to soil and groundwater at the notified sites. There have been 114 notifications since the contaminated land provisions were enacted in 1999.

Contaminated Sites

During 2018-2019 (refer to Table 4):

• 20 independent contaminated land audits into site suitability by EPA approved auditors were reviewed and endorsed by the EPA. These primarily related to the redevelopment of sites potentially impacted by hydrocarbon and asbestos contamination;
• 56 contaminated land environmental assessment reports into the suitability of sites for their proposed uses were reviewed and endorsed; and
• 860 inspections were carried out of known, or potentially contaminated sites to review whether activities had the appropriate approval and whether redevelopment activities were underway or complete.

Register of Contaminated Sites

As of 30 June 2019, there are 176 contaminated sites recorded on the Register. The information on the Register is publicly available on the Access Canberra website and can be obtained by contacting the EPA.

Contaminated Land Searches and Data

The EPA maintains records of known, potentially contaminated and remediated land in the ACT. This information is made available through the Lease Conveyancing Enquiry through the ACT Planning and Land Authority and Contaminated Land Search through Access Canberra to ensure persons with an interest in the land have access to records held by the EPA. The information is also provided under licence agreement to utility providers, their contractors and other areas of the government for their operational requirements for installation and maintenance of infrastructure.

In 2018-19 the EPA received and responded to 518 Contaminated Land Search enquiries (table 5).

Beneficial Reuse Approvals

Beneficial reuse involves the reapplication of soil which has a level of contamination that does not pose (subject to appropriate management) a risk to human health or the environment for a particular land use. Applications for reuse are undertaken by suitably qualified environmental consultants and are subject to rigorous assessment in accordance with EPA adopted guidance and criteria.

During 2018-2019, the EPA received, assessed and approved 82 applications for the beneficial reuse of approximately 328,942 cubic metres of low-level contaminated soil (refer to Table 6).

Planning and Development

During 2018-19, the EPA commented on 380 Development Applications referred from the Planning and Land Authority, 31 from the National Capital Authority and 593 other planning documents.

Controlled Waste Movements

In 2018-2019, 27 Consignment Authorisations were issued for the movement of a controlled waste into the ACT. Consignment Authorisations were issued primarily for the transport of clinical waste, asbestos, oily water and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) free oil from other jurisdictions, which resulted in 643 controlled waste movements into the ACT (refer to Table 7).

During the same period, 932 controlled waste movements out of the ACT were notified and monitored by the EPA (refer to Table 7).

Note: * Number is reflective of total waste transport certificates received at the time of this report.

Enforcement Actions

Individuals or businesses may incur penalties such as on-the-spot infringement notices, Environment Protection Orders or prosecution for breaches of the Environment Protection Act 1997.

During 2018-19, the EPA undertook 7 enforcement actions which is a 40% increase compared to 2017-18, including a 100% increase in infringement notices (refer to Table 8 and Table 9). This increase is a combination of increased EPA profile, community awareness of environmental issues and proactive inspections.

Note: *Relates to a court imposed fine for a noise offence.

Complaint Handling

During 2018-2019, the Complaints Management Team (CMT) within Access Canberra received 2844 complaints related to EPA matters, of which 2282, or approximately 80%, related to noise. The CMT referred 105 cases to the EPA for further action (Note: a case may include more than one complaint).

Table 10 and Figure 1 and 2 provide a percentage breakdown of categories of EPA complaints received by the CMT for the past two years.

Note: *Data represents a snapshot in time and some matters may be reclassified following more detailed consideration. This may result in small discrepancies from figures reported in the previous year.

Figure 1: Categories of EPA complaints received by CMT for 2017 - 2018

Figure 2: Categories of EPA complaints received by CMT for 2018 - 2019

Table 11 shows noise complaints by category for comparison between 2017-18 and 2018-19. Figure 3 and 4 show a percentage breakdown of noise complaints by category for the past two years.

Figure 3: Categories of noise complaints received by CMT for 2017 - 2018

Figure 4: Categories of noise complaints received by CMT for 2018 – 2019

Water Resources Act 2007

The Water Resources Act 2007 aims to ensure the use and management of the Territory’s water resources are sustainable while protecting the ecosystems that depend on the waterways. It is also designed to protect waterways and aquifers from damage.

Under the Water Resources Act 2007, licences are issued for regulating potential harmful activities ranging from water abstraction, bore drilling and construction of dams or modification of waterways (rivers creeks and large stormwater drains).

Water Access Entitlements and Licences

The EPA administers around 230 licences comprising of Licences to Take Water; Recharge Licences; Drillers Licences; Bore Work Licences and Waterway Work Licences. We also administer 315 Water Access Entitlements.

During 2018-2019 there were:

• 180 active Licences to Take Water, with 2 new licences issued and 7 licences which expired or were cancelled because the extraction activity had ceased;
• 2 Bore Works licences issued;
• 7 Drillers licences issued; and
• 5 Water Access Entitlements issued.

Table 12 indicates licensing activity by number of new licences and entitlements issued compared to the previous two years. The low number of Waterway Works licences issued after 2017 reflects the positive effect of a red tape reduction action of amending the Water Resources Act 2007. The amendment means that a person does not require separate licences under the Environment Protection Act 1997 and Water Resources Act 2007 for works in a waterway.

Assessment of Water Use and Protection of Environmental Flows

Water use by licence holders is assessed to ensure that extraction does not reach a level that negatively impacts our aquatic ecosystems and that users pay a reasonable price for using the resource.

During 2018-19, two formal warning letters were issued for breaches of licence conditions for no water meter and a faulty water meter. Both breaches have been rectified.

Metering of Water Use

All licenced water use in the ACT is metered and the inspection regime aims to have each meter inspected at least once every three years. The number of meter inspections performed, and type of meter inspected for 2018-19 are listed in Table 13.

For transparency and to assist compliance, the ACT will ensure that meters are identified using a unique serial number, most commonly located on the face of the meter. This is referred to as the meter number which is also kept on a customer’s licence file. The information is publicly available upon request.

The ACT’s metering requirements which have been in place since 2003, meets the Murray Darling Basin Compliance Compact (which was introduced in 2018). ACT licences have conditions mandating the installation of a meter as well as requiring meter maintenance and data reporting. The ‘ACT EPA Water Meter Installation, Maintenance and Replacement Guideline 2015’ details metering standards that apply to various scenarios and aligns with the Compliance Compact and other states.

In 2018-2019 there were 180 Licences to Take Water with 331 meters in use. EPA officers performed 30 licence inspections which included 43 meters.

Lakes Act 1976

The Delegate of Lakes is responsible for administering provisions of the Lakes Act 1976 including works approval on the lakes and lake warnings and closures due to pollution incidents.

In 2018-2019, the Molonglo Reach water ski area remained closed to the general public due to submerged and floating debris in the river. Demand continues for the Molonglo Reach water ski area with four licences being issued for training and testing purposes in 2018-2019.

During 2018-2019:

• five new powerboat licences were issued which brings the total number of powerboat licences that regulate the use of powerboats for specific purposes, such as training; hire boats; water quality sampling; foreshore maintenance and charter fishing on ACT waterways to 20; and
• there were nine active licences specifically for use on the Molonglo Reach water ski area. Seven were for training and competition purposes and two for marine repair businesses to conduct testing.

Enforcement Actions

In 2018-2019, there were no enforcement actions taken by the Delegate for breaches of the
Lakes Act 1976.

Clinical Waste Act 1990

The Clinical Waste Act 1990 provides for the transport, treatment and disposal of wastes resulting from the treatment and care of people and animals, including such things as needles, fluids and specimens.

In 2018-19, six company and 23 vehicle licences were renewed in compliance with the Act.

Commonwealth Government Commitments

Air Quality

The EPA produces an annual Air Quality Monitoring Report as part of its compliance with the Ambient Air Quality (AAQ) National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM). Historical monitoring results indicate that the only AAQ NEPM pollutant of concern in the ACT air shed is particulate matter, which increases significantly during winter because of emissions from domestic wood heaters, especially in the Tuggeranong Valley where levels are exacerbated by the topography of the valley, which is subject to temperature inversions and poor pollution dispersion.

Monitoring results in 2018 demonstrate that Canberra’s air quality is generally good, with no exceedances of the NEPM standards for carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and PM₁₀ (coarse particulate matter).

In 2018, the major impacts on Canberra’s air quality came from the accumulation of natural events such as hazard reduction burns or dust storms and human activities such as wood heaters. Some significantly high particle levels, PM₁₀in particular, occurred as a result of more frequent dust storms due to the prolonged drought conditions.

The ACT Government acknowledges that woodsmoke is a problem and will continue to implement an integrated program to address this including:

• ‘Burn Right Tonight’ public education campaign;
• regulating the sale of firewood and wood heaters including the introduction of stricter emission and efficiency standards in September 2019; and
• administering the Wood Heater Replacement Program.

In 2019, to reduce the impacts of wood heaters on air quality, there will be:

• an increased emphasis on how to clean and correctly operate wood heaters so they can perform efficiently and reduce air emissions; and
• audits of wood fire merchants and wood heater retailers to ensure compliance with the regulations.

National Pollutant Inventory

The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) is a joint program between the Commonwealth Government and all participating States and Territories. The legislative framework underpinning the NPI is the NPI NEPM, which was originally made in 1998 and varied in November 2008. Section 159A of the ACT’s Environment Protection Act 1997 establishes reporting requirements for ACT industrial facilities.

During 2018-19, the EPA received, validated and approved 21 industry reports for the reporting year 2017-18 (please note that NPI reporting is a year in arrears due to reporting deadlines).

The NPI is currently under review. Following a public consultation process in August 2018, the NPI Review Steering Committee (RSC) presented interim findings to the National Environment Protection Council (NEPC). These findings identified key potential reform areas requiring further investigation in order to complete the Review. The NEPC agreed to the RSC’s request that these areas be investigated and that the Final Review Report, scoping papers and recommendations be presented to NEPC in late 2019.

As this Review will have a significant effect on the future operations of the NPI, the outcomes will be of interest to stakeholders from government, industry, non-government organisations and the public who use data from and/or contribute data to the NPI.

Per and poly-fluoralkyl substances

In February 2018 all jurisdictions in Australia adopted the framework for per and poly-fluoralkyl substances (PFAS) management through the Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Framework for Responding to PFAS Contamination (February 2018) (IGA) and the PFAS National Environment Management Plan (January 2018) (NEMP). The IGA principles include that the primary focus of governments in responding to PFAS should be action to protect the environment and precautionary action to minimise human exposure.

Environment Ministers are responsible for implementation of the IGA signed by First Ministers. The EPA has the lead for implementation of the IGA supported by the Environment Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, Health Protection Services and the Health Directorate.

The EPA are progressing an ambient water sampling program (surface and groundwater) as per the IGA. PFAS management is now included in the routine environmental regulation of activities including relevant Class A activities (as listed in Schedule 1 of the Environment Protection Act 1997). Authorisations have been varied to include PFAS monitoring for wastewater treatment plants, landfills, contaminated sites and other key industry types.

Further Information can be obtained from

Narelle Sargent
Environment Protection Authority
Phone: 13 22 81
Email: environment@act.gov.au www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au