PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT OPERATIONS ACT 1997 - SECT 219
Other persons may institute proceedings with leave of Land and Environment Court
PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT OPERATIONS ACT 1997 - SECT 219
Other persons may institute proceedings with leave of Land and Environment Court
219 Other persons may institute proceedings with leave of Land and Environment
Court
(1) Any person may institute proceedings in the Land and Environment Court for
an offence against this Act or the regulations if the Court grants the person
leave to bring the proceedings.
(1A) An appropriate regulatory authority
(other than the EPA) and any person or authority referred to in section 218
may institute proceedings in the Land and Environment Court for an offence
against this Act or the regulations, if the Court grants the authority leave
to bring the proceedings.
(1B) Nothing in section 217 or 218 limits the
operation of this section.
(2) The Land and Environment Court is not to grant
leave unless satisfied that--
(a) the EPA has decided not to take any relevant
action (as defined in subsection (3)) in respect of the act or omission
constituting the alleged offence or has not made a decision on whether to take
such action within 90 days after the person or authority requested the EPA to
institute the proceedings, and
(b) the EPA has been notified of the
proceedings, and
(c) the proceedings are not an abuse of the process of
the Court, and
(d) the particulars of the offence disclose, without any
hearing of the evidence, a prima facie case of the commission of the offence.
(3) Relevant action for the purposes of subsection (2) is not limited to the
institution of criminal proceedings, but includes action under this Act to
require the defendant to prevent, control, abate or mitigate any harm to the
environment caused by the alleged offence or to prevent the continuance or
recurrence of the alleged offence.
