Waste Management and Pollution Control (Administration) Regulations
Environmental Infringement Notices
The NT Environment Protection Agency (EPA) can deal with clear breaches of the Waste Management and Pollution Control Act with the serving of environmental infringement notices. Environmental infringement notices (or “on-the-spot” fines) are a way of managing minor environmental offences where the environmental impacts are not serious enough to warrant court action. They are usually a first response upon discovery of a preventable breach. Fines of $100 for an individual and $500 for a body corporate are payable upon issue of an infringement notice
Background
The Waste Management And Pollution Control Act (WMPCA) provides for certain offences to be dealt with by way of an environmental infringement notice and the payment of a fine. An infringement notice can only be issued for prescribed offences that are listed in the Waste Management And Pollution Control (Administration) Regulations.
The recipient of an infringement notice can pay the fine and no further prosecution proceedings can be taken for the offence. Alternatively, a person can elect not to pay the fine and have the matter dealt with as a normal prosecution in court.
Operation
2.1 Who can issue infringement notices?
Infringement notices can be issued by authorised officers under section 6 of the Waste Management and Pollution Control (Administration) Regulations. Authorised officers are appointed by the chief executive officer of the Department of Natural Resources, Arts and the Environment.
2.2 Issuing infringement notices
Infringement notice are issued for prescribed environmental offence levels 4 that are generally of minor impact to human health and the environment and for clauses 3, 6, 7 and 8 in the Environment Protection (National Pollutant Inventory) Objective. Some these could include causing environmental nuisance by emission of dust, odours or noise, breach of environmental protection approval or licence or failure to submit a national pollutant inventory report within 3 months of the end of reporting period. The Environmental Offences And Penalties Act specifies the penalties for infringement notice environmental offences.
Where appropriate, the agency will attempt to resolve minor breaches of the legislation through negotiation and education before issuing an infringement notice. This may involve providing a written or verbal warning and the relevant guidelines, codes of practice, fact sheets and other information to assist industry and the community to understand what is required to ensure compliance with the legislation.
Reasonable and practicable
An infringement notice can be served under section 83(7) for storage of a waste “in a manner in which it is reasonably likely to leak, spill or escape causing environmental harm”. Under section 12 of the Waste Management And Pollution Control Act, every person and industry is subject to the general environmental duty, which states that all reasonable and practicable measures must be taken to prevent or minimise pollution or environmental harm, and reduce the amount of waste.
Technical information such as environmental guidelines, codes of practices and australian standards are considered reasonable and practicable ways of complying with the general environmental duty. Where a code, standard or guideline does not exist in the Northern Territory, the WMPCA requires undertaking best practice environmental management. This means that a person or industry must undertake a review of similar practices and relevant standards and guidelines from other jurisdictions of Australia and implement the practices in agreement with the Environment Protection Agency. Operation in accordance with a code of practice, standard or guideline can provide a defense against prosecution under the WMPCA for offences such as storage of waste in a manner in which it may cause environmental harm.
Summary
3.1 When are Infringement Notices appropriate?
Infringement notices are appropriate in circumstances where:
- Breach is relatively minor
- Facts appear indisputable
- Breach is a one-off situation that can be remedied easily
- Inspection discovers a breach that normal operating procedures should have prevented
- Payment of the fine is likely to be a viable deterrent
- Verbal or written notices have been issued where possible or relevant.
In general, infringement notices will only be issued when education and warnings have not been successful. However, in circumstances of blatant disregard for the environment, an on-the spot fine will be used immediately. For example, when a person is caught tipping paint or oil down the stormwater drain – an on-the-spot fine may be incurred.
3.2 When are Infringement Notices not appropriate?
Infringement notices are not appropriate in circumstances where:
- Material or serious environmental harm has occurred
- Breach is ongoing and not within the alleged offender’s capacity to remedy quickly
- A warning or similar advice has not been provided to the alleged offender if circumstances warrant
- The fine would be inadequate for the severity of the offence
- The evidence is controversial or insufficient, so that if the matter was heard in court, a conviction would be unlikely
- The extent of environmental harm can not be assessed immediately
- Multiple breaches have occurred, either at once or over time
- Other legislative action such as environmental audits, pollution abatement notices, environmental audits, compliance plans or other legal proceedings has been initiated.
Further information
The EPA provides advice on the implementation of the NT’s environmental legislation:
2nd floor Darwin plaza
41 Smith Street
Darwin NT 0801
Tel: (08) 8924 4139
Fax: (08) 8924 4053
