Changes to duty to notify (about contaminated land) - will it lead to a flood of notifications and prosecutions?

Invitations to comment on the Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Bill 2014 are open until 29 September 2014. Of interest to local governments may be the proposed changes to the contaminated land provisions, particularly how those changes vastly enlarge the notification obligations of local governments.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT: THE DUTY TO NOTIFY

The Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EPA) is Queensland's primary environmental protection statute.

The EPA currently contains general offence provisions for causing unlawful serious¹ or material environmental harm,² as well as environmental nuisance.³ The EPA also imposes some duties:

• a "general environmental duty" which must be complied with;