New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

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GREATER METROPOLITAN REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PLAN NO 2--GEORGES RIVER CATCHMENT -

DICTIONARY

"Agreed environmental objectives" means the water quality and river flow objectives agreed by the Minister for Environment and the Minister for Land and Water Conservation.
"Bank" means a change of slope that defines the high bank of the Georges River or its tributaries or the bank which defines the channel in a geomorphic sense.
"Bank or bed works" means works carried out on the banks or the bed of the Georges River or any of its tributaries other than maintenance dredging.
"Bed" means the land which contains the Georges River and its tributaries, including that which is alternately inundated or left bare from a rise or fall in the supply of water, but does not include any land inundated only in time of flood.
"Biological diversity" means the diversity of life and is made up of the following 3 components:

(a) genetic diversity (the variety of genes, or units of heredity, in any population), and
(b) species diversity (the variety of species), and
(c) ecosystem diversity (the variety of communities and ecosystems).
"Clearing" of wetlands or freshwater rivers means destroying or removing by any means:
(a) flora which is either a remainder of the natural flora of the land or, if altered, is still representative of the structure and floristics of the natural flora (this includes the destruction or removal of the surface and subsurface soils, leaf litter, the seed bed, and any rocks, stones or pebbles), or
(b) plants which are not native to New South Wales but which, in the opinion of the consent authority, contribute positively to the scenic quality or water quality of the locality.
However, it does not include:
(c) destroying or removing plants declared to be noxious weeds by an order under section 7 of the Noxious Weeds Act 1993 by means not likely to be significantly detrimental to the ecosystem, or
(d) unavoidably and consequentially destroying or removing flora lying adjacent to any such noxious weeds during the process of destroying or removing those noxious weeds, or
(e) the removal in accordance with a bush fire management plan of flora which are a bush fire hazard, or
(f) the removal of flora in accordance with a vegetation management plan approved by the council of the area concerned.
"Cumulative environmental impact" means the combined effects on the environment of development and resource use within a locality over a period of time.
"Development" is defined in the Act.
"Ecosystems" (or ecological systems) are collections of organisms (plants and animals) and the environment (the soil, geology, water and air) in which they live.
"Ecologically sustainable development" requires the effective integration of economic and environmental considerations in decision-making processes. Ecologically sustainable development can be achieved through the implementation of the following principles and programs:
(a) the precautionary principle-namely, that if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.
In the application of the precautionary principle, public and private decisions should be guided by:
(i) careful evaluation to avoid, wherever practicable, serious or irreversible damage to the environment, and
(ii) an assessment of the risk-weighted consequences of various options,
(b) inter-generational equity-namely, that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations,
(c) conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity-namely, that conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity should be a fundamental consideration,
(d) improved valuation, pricing and incentive mechanism-namely, that environmental factors should be included in the valuation of assets and services, such as:
(i) polluter pays-that is, those who generate pollution and waste should bear the cost of containment, avoidance or abatement,
(ii) the users of goods and services should pay prices based on the full life cycle of costs of providing goods and services, including the use of natural resources and assets and the ultimate disposal of any waste,
(iii) environmental goals, having been established, should be pursued in the most cost effective way, by establishing incentive structures, including market mechanisms, that enable those best placed to maximise benefits or minimise costs to develop their own solutions and responses to environmental problems.
"Environmentally sensitive natural areas" are areas where environmental characteristics mean that the potential impacts of land use are greater than elsewhere in the Catchment. Environmentally sensitive natural areas in the Catchment are the river, vegetated buffer areas (riparian land), escarpments, national parks and nature reserves, wetlands, other significant floral and faunal habitats and corridors and localities containing acid sulfate soils.
"Erosion and Sediment Control Plan" means a plan addressing all aspects of site disturbance, flow rate changes, erosion and sediment control and site rehabilitation for the duration of the relevant project.
"Fauna" means all animal life, including birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and invertebrates (such as insects, shellfish and the like).
"Floodplain" means the floodplain level nominated in a local environmental plan or those areas inundated as a result of a 1 in 100 flood event, if no such level has been nominated.
"Flood liable land" means land identified in an environmental planning instrument as flood liable land.
"Flood prone land" means land susceptible to inundation by the probable maximum flood event.
"Floodway" means those areas of a floodplain where a significant discharge of water occurs during floods. Floodways are areas which, even if partially blocked, would cause a significant redistribution of flood flow, or a significant increase in flood levels.
"Flora" means all plant life, including higher plants (flowering plants) and lower plants (non-flowering plants such as ferns).
"Georges River and its tributaries" means all the watercourses within the Georges River Catchment.
"Habitat" means the environment that permanently, periodically or occasionally supports a plant or animal.
"Immediate foreshore land" means land within 20 metres of the top of the bank of the Georges River or its tributaries.
"In-stream extraction" means the winning of extractive material or an undertaking which depends for its operations on the winning of extractive material from the channels of the Georges River or its tributaries.
"Managing Urban Stormwater series of documents" means the following documents prepared by and available from the Environment Protection Authority:
(a) Managing Urban Stormwater: Treatment Techniques ,
(b) Managing Urban Stormwater: Soils and Construction ,
(c) Managing Urban Stormwater: Council Handbook prepared by Landcom and the Department of Housing.
"Metropolitan Strategy" means the document entitled Cities for the 21st Century prepared by the former Department of Planning and published in 1995. It is available from offices of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning.
"Native vegetation" unless otherwise qualified has the same meaning as the definition in section 6 of the Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997 .
"Public authority" has the same meaning as in the Act.
"Remnant vegetation" means vegetation within the Catchment identified and recorded as remnant in a document available from the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
"Riparian areas" are the lands immediately adjacent to waterbodies.
"Sprinkler system" means a high or low level system with a lateral move, centre pivot, travelling irrigator, side roll, end tow or hand shift sprinkler head.
"Terrestrial ecosystems" are those ecosystems that are land-based, including woodlands, grasslands and forests.
"The Act" means the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 .
"The Catchment" means the Catchment of the Georges River.
"The catchment map" means the map marked “ Georges River Catchment Boundary ” deposited in the Head Office of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning.
"Threatened species, populations and ecological communities" has the same meaning as in the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 .
"Urban Development Program" means the government land release system managed by and available from the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning.
"Watercourse" means a river or stream, whether perennial or intermittent, flowing in a natural channel with an established bed or in a natural channel artificially modifying the course of the stream.
"Water quality objectives" means the objectives approved for the Catchment by the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Land and Water Conservation.
"Water Reform Package" means the documents so identified prepared by the Department of Land and Water Conservation aimed at reforming the use of the State’s waterways. They are available from the offices of that Department.
"Water-related development" means development such as jetties, ramps and pontoons located on land within 20 metres of the Georges River or its tributaries.
"Waste" includes any matter or thing whether solid, gaseous or liquid or a combination of any solids, gases or liquids that is discarded or is refuse from processes or uses (such as domestic, medical, industrial, mining, agricultural or commercial processes or uses).
"Wetlands" means an area with characteristics of both terrestrial and aquatic environments that is flooded or waterlogged often enough to support aquatic or other plants typical of areas with those characteristics.


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