Environmental Incident Report Template Available

Late last year the State Government amended the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 and specified new requirements relating to the notification of pollution incidents. These new requirements and their commencement dates were:

• Immediate notification of a pollution incident instead of 'as soon as practicable' from 6 February 2012;
• Preparation of pollution incident response management plans for each licensed activity from 29 February 2012;
• Publication of monitoring data on the council website from 31 March 2012.

Previously the Water Directorate’s Sewer Subcommittee had published the Incident Notification for Sewerage Spill or Overflow template on our website. This template has now been revised and republished as the Environmental Incident Notification.

The Environmental Incident Notification references the new requirements under Part 5.7 of the POEO Act and provides councils with a generic form/template to use when notifying a pollution incident. Councils that would like more information about the changes to the POEO Act should refer to the EPA website