ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT 1986 - SECT 72

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT 1986 - SECT 72

72 .         Duty to notify CEO of discharges of waste

        (1)         Subject to subsection (2), if a discharge of waste —

            (a)         occurs as a result of an emergency, accident or malfunction; or

            (b)         occurs otherwise than in accordance with a works approval or licence or with a requirement contained in an environmental protection notice; or

            (c)         is of a prescribed kind or a kind notified in writing to the occupier concerned,

                and has caused or is likely to cause pollution, material environmental harm or serious environmental harm, the occupier of the premises on or from which that discharge took place who does not, as soon as practicable after that discharge, give the CEO oral or electronic notification followed by written notification of the prescribed details of that discharge commits an offence.

        (2)         Subsection (1) does not apply to or in relation to a discharge of waste which is of a kind prescribed for the purposes of this subsection.

        (3)         The occupier of premises from which a discharge of waste of a kind specified in a relevant NEPM occurs is to notify the CEO in the prescribed manner of the prescribed details of that discharge.

        (4)         An occupier who contravenes subsection (3) commits an offence.

        (5)         In subsection (3) —

        relevant NEPM means an NEPM that is —

            (a)         taken to be an approved policy under section 37A; or

            (b)         specified by regulation to be a relevant NEPM.

        [Section 72 amended: No. 14 of 1998 s. 31; No. 54 of 2003 s. 46(2), 50 and 140(2).]