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Guidelines under the CLM Act

Section 105 of the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (CLM Act) allows the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to make or approve guidelines for purposes connected with the objects of the Act. These guidelines must be taken into consideration by the EPA whenever they are relevant and by accredited site auditors when conducting a site audit. They are also used by contaminated land consultants in undertaking investigation, remediation, validation and reporting on contaminated sites.

A current list of guidelines made or approved by the EPA under the CLM Act appears below. To obtain hard copies of the guidelines, contact Environment Line on 131 555.

Guidelines made by the EPA

• Guidelines for Assessing Service Station Sites (December 1994) 
• Guidelines for the Vertical Mixing of Soil on Former Broad-acre Agricultural Land (January 1995)
• Sampling Design Guidelines (9559sampgdlne.pdf, 2MB) (September 1995)
• Guidelines for Assessing Banana Plantation Sites (bananaplantsite.pdf; 586 KB) (October 1997) 
• Guidelines for Consultants Reporting on Contaminated Sites (20110650consultantsglines.pdf; 428 KB) (reprinted August 2011)
• Guidelines for Assessing Former Orchards and Market Gardens (orchardgdlne.pdf; 172 KB) (June 2005) 
• Guidelines for the NSW Site Auditor Scheme, 2nd edition (auditorglines06121.pdf; 510 KB) (April 2006) 
• Guidelines for the Assessment and Management of Groundwater Contamination (groundwaterguidelines07144.pdf; 604 KB) (March 2007)
• Guidelines on the Duty to Report Contamination under the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (09438gldutycontclma.pdf; 1 MB) (June 2009)

Note: All references in the EPA's contaminated sites guidelines to the Australian Water Quality Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Waters (ANZECC, November 1992) are replaced as of 6 September 2001 by references to the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (ANZECC and ARMCANZ, October 2000), subject to the same terms.

Guidelines approved by the EPA

ANZECC publications

• Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for the Assessment and Management of Contaminated Sites, published by Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (January 1992)
• Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality, published by ANZECC and Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand, Paper No. 4 (October 2000)

EnHealth publications (formerly National Environmental Health Forum monographs)

• Composite Sampling, Lock, W. H., National Environmental Health Forum Monographs, Soil Series No.3, 1996, SA Health Commission, Adelaide
• Environmental Health Risk Assessment: Guidelines for assessing human health risks from environmental hazards, Department of Health and Ageing and EnHealth Council, Commonwealth of Australia (June 2002)

National Environment Protection Council publications

• National Environment Protection (Assessment of Site Contamination) Measure 1999 (April 2013) 

The NEPM consists of a policy framework for the assessment of site contamination, Schedule A (Recommended General Process for the Assessment of Site Contamination) and Schedule B (Guidelines).

Schedule B guidelines include:

Guideline on Investigation Levels for Soil and Groundwater
Guideline on Site Characterisation
Guideline on Laboratory Analysis of Potentially Contaminated Soils
Guideline on Site-specific Health Risk Assessment Methodology
Guideline on Ecological Risk Assessment
Guideline on Methodology to Derive Ecological Investigation Levels in Contaminated Soils
Guideline on Ecological Investigation Levels for Arsenic, Chromium(III), Copper, DDT, Lead, Naphthalene, Nickel and Zinc
Guideline on the Framework for Risk-based Assessment of Groundwater Contamination
Guideline on Derivation of Health-based Investigation Levels
Guideline on Community Engagement and Risk Communication
Guideline on Competencies and Acceptance of Environmental Auditors and Related Professionals

Other documents

• Guidelines for the Assessment and Clean Up of Cattle Tick Dip Sites for Residential Purposes, NSW Agriculture and CMPS&F Environmental (February 1996)
• Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, NHMRC and Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council of Australia and New Zealand (2011)