COMPANIES ARE REQUIRED TO REPORT CONTAMINATION TO GOVERNMENT IN NSW – OR BE HEAVILY PENALISED
As of 1 December 2009, the new Duty to Report Contamination requirements in NSW mean that your company is required to report contamination or potentially contaminating activities to the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW).
If you are unsure whether you have a duty to report contamination or potentially contaminating activities, you can either contact OTEK, or initially complete a checklist provided in the recently finalised Duty to Report Contamination in NSW Guidelines, available here.
The checklist (page 5 of the Duty to Report Contamination Guidelines) should be completed by companies for each of their owned, leased, or occupied properties that are located in NSW immediately. Completing the checklist and any recommended actions will help avoid substantial penalties imposed by the DECCW for failure to report contamination.
This means that if you have not assessed whether your property or properties in NSW require reporting of contamination, then you are potentially at risk of being penalised for not having reported contamination or potentially contaminating activities to the DECCW.
The substantial penalties include:
- 1500 penalty units (currently $165,000), with a further penalty of 700 penalty units (currently $77,000) for each day the offences continue, in the case of a corporation, or
- 700 penalty units (currently $77,000), with a further penalty of 300 penalty units (currently $33,000) for each day the offence continues, in the case of an individual.
OTEK can help your company by assessing whether you are required to report contamination to the DECCW according to the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 and the Guidelines on the Duty to Report Contamination.
For further information please contact:
khenderson@otek.com.au
Kenneth Henderson
Principal Environmental Scientist
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