ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION ACT 2017 - SECT 39 Duty to manage contaminated land

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION ACT 2017 - SECT 39

    (1)     A person in management or control of contaminated land must minimise risks of harm to human health and the environment from the contaminated land so far as reasonably practicable.

    (2)     For the purposes of subsection (1), minimising risks of harm to human health and the environment from contaminated land includes (but is not limited to) carrying out any of the following—

        (a)     identification of any contamination that the person knows or ought reasonably to know of;

        (b)     investigation and assessment of the contamination;

        (c)     provision and maintenance of reasonably practicable measures to minimise risks of harm to human health and the environment from the contamination, including undertaking clean up activities where reasonably practicable;

        (d)     provision of adequate information to any person that the person in management or control of the contaminated land reasonably believes may be affected by the contamination, including—

              (i)     sufficient information to identify the contamination; and

              (ii)     the results of investigation and assessment referred to in paragraph (b); and

              (iii)     the risks of harm to human health and the environment from the contamination;

        (e)     provision of adequate information to enable any person who is reasonably expected to become a person in management or control of the contaminated land to comply with the duty to manage contaminated land.

Note

See section 6 in relation to the concept of minimising risks of harm to human health and the environment.

    (3)     A person in management or control of land may recover in a court of competent jurisdiction, as a debt due to the person, any reasonable costs incurred in complying with a duty under section 39(1) or 40(1), including any reasonable costs incurred by the person in taking action under this section, against any person responsible for causing or contributing to contamination of the land.

S. 40 inserted by No. 39/2018 s. 7 (as amended by Nos 27/2019 ss 12− 30, 3/2020 ss 42– 44, 47/2020 s. 26).