Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

WASTE MANAGEMENT AND POLLUTION CONTROL ACT - SECT 72

(1) Subject to section 73, an authorised officer may do any of the following:

(a) enter land, a vehicle or premises;

(b) search land, a vehicle or premises and anything found there;

(c) take photographs, including video recordings or make sketches or other records of land, a vehicle or premises or things on or in land, a vehicle or premises;

(d) inspect and take copies of a document within the meaning of the Evidence Act ;

(e) measure anything, or take samples of anything, on or in land, a vehicle or premises;

(f) examine or test any equipment, machinery, vehicle or other thing for the purpose of determining whether this Act is being or has been complied with and seize the object for that purpose;

(g) open a package or carton on land, in or on a vehicle or in premises for the purpose of inspecting, or taking a sample of, the contents;

(h) require a person to produce an environment protection approval, licence, environmental audit program, compliance plan, improvement plan or performance agreement, or a copy of such a document, for inspection;

(j) require a person on land, in a vehicle or in premises to provide his or her name and address;

(k) direct a person to prevent, reduce, control, rectify or clean up pollution or environmental harm resulting from pollution or to manage waste on or in land, a vehicle or premises by the method, and within the time, specified in the direction;

(m) require a person to treat a contaminant or waste, or to take specified measures in relation to equipment, a vehicle or premises, by a specified method and within a specified time, so as to reduce environmental harm;

(n) direct a person -

(i) to remove a thing on or in land, a vehicle or premises; or

(ii) to transport and hold a thing at a specified place,

for appraisal, treatment, destruction or other action in accordance with, and within the time specified in, the direction;

(p) require the driver of a vehicle that the officer believes may contain evidence of pollution, a contaminant or waste or of the commission of an offence against the Act -

(i) to stop the vehicle; or

(ii) to move the vehicle to a specified place,

to enable the officer to search it;

(q) authorise a person to provide assistance to an authorised officer in the exercise or performance of the authorised officer's powers or functions under this Act.

(2) Where an authorised officer seizes a thing under this section, the officer must, within 7 days, provide a written receipt that sets out the details of the thing seized to the person the officer believes or suspects to have had possession of the thing immediately before its seizure.