Page 859 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 April 2014
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(e) all tests during operation of the plant and the subsequent independent audit indicated that the site posed no risk to the environment or human health and testing on neighbouring properties in 2008 and 2011 confirmed those results;
(f) further independent testing on 21 March 2014 analysed off-site groundwater and reconfirmed that Chromium VI is not present; and
(g) under the nationally recognised ‘polluter pays’ principle, on-site testing and remediation is the responsibility of the owner;
(2) and further notes that:
(a) the EPA will work with the owners to ensure that on-site contamination is actively managed into the future;
(b) the Government has already undertaken a review of the Environment Protection Act, and proposed legislative amendments will strengthen reporting and compliance enforcement;
(c) the Government will commission an independent analysis of all testing and results to date, to provide independent assessment of the pollution and any possible impact on adjacent sites; and
(d) the Government will table the results of this analysis in the Assembly by 3 June 2014.”.
The government is very strongly committed to the protection of our natural environment. The licensing of activities and remediation of sites which have the potential to cause harm to both human health and the environment are a key part of our environment protection law. The legislation that provides the framework for the protection of our environment for activities that have the potential to cause harm to the environment is the Environment Protection Act.
One of the key objectives of this legislation is the nationally recognised polluter-pays principle in that the assessment, including testing and remediation of a site, is the responsibility of the polluter in the first instance and the landowner in the second. The act requires that certain activities are subject to formal regulation or licensing by the EPA.
In relation to the regulation of the former Koppers site, it was licensed by the commonwealth from 1983, when it commenced operations, until the territory took over responsibility for regulation with self-government in 1989 under the commonwealth water pollution ordinance. It is worth outlining that throughout this time, until self-government, groundwater monitoring was not a requirement of the commonwealth’s licensing of the facility. The commonwealth did not monitor groundwater and pollution of groundwater during any time that it had responsibility for this site.
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