You are here: Home > Environment protection licences

Environment protection licences

The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) issues environment protection licences to the owners or operators of various industrial premises under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act). Licence conditions relate to pollution prevention and monitoring, and cleaner production through recycling and reuse and the implementation of best practice.

If you think you may require an environment protection licence, consult the Guide to Licensing.

Online forms are available to:

• apply for, transfer, vary or surrender a licence
• apply for a load reduction agreement
• apply to sign an annual return on behalf of a licence holder.

All licence holders must:

• comply with the conditions of their licence
• pay annual administrative fees and, in some cases, additional fees
• submit annual returns.

The load-based licensing (LBL) scheme sets limits on the pollutant loads emitted by the state's larger and potentially most polluting industries by linking licence fees to pollutant emissions. The LBL scheme also provides the infrastructure for emissions trading schemes. These enable emissions to be controlled from groups of licensees as well as from individual premises by allowing licensees to buy and sell credits for reducing emissions.

Other information sources relating to environment protection licences are:

• the public register, which contains information on licence reviews, prosecutions and other issues
• the National Pollutant Inventory, which provides data on types and amounts of certain emissions across Australia, and their impact on health and the environment.

OEH manages a strategic compliance audit program, which assesses how licence holders comply with existing requirements and provides industry with examples of best practice to encourage improved environmental performance.

To help OEH manage its audit program and promote environmental improvements:

• organisations and individuals are required to report pollution incidents under section 148 of the POEO Act
• authorised officers - normally OEH or local council staff - are appointed to exercise certain functions under the POEO Act.

Variation to an environment protection licence - public consultation

Delta Electricity applied to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) under s. 58 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 to vary their licence number 766 to authorise the limited discharge of certain pollutants to the Coxs River. The company is committed to implementing a program of works for the full treatment of cooling tower blowdown water from Wallerawang power station by the end of 2015.

Submissions on Delta Electricity’s application to vary licence 766 are now closed.

All written submissions received are being considered by the EPA.

Submissions received

The EPA has received submissions about Delta’s application for licence variation and these are displayed for public viewing.

• Blue Mountains Conservation Society (BMCSDeltaVariation.pdf, 683KB)
• Lithgow Environment Group Inc. (LithgowDeltaLicenceVariation.pdf, 240KB)
• Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority (HNDeltaLicenceVariation.pdf, 517KB)
• NSW Office of Water (NOWDeltaLicenceVariation.pdf, 959KB)
• Office of the Hawkesbury-Nepean (OHNDeltaLicenceVariation.pdf, 700KB)
• Sydney Catchment Authority (SCADeltaLicenceVariation.pdf, 150KB)

Delta Electricity’s application and supporting documentation

• Application to vary licence 766 (DeltaApplication.pdf, 2.2MB)

Ecological reports

• Potential Impacts of Discharges from Wallerawang Power Station on the Upper Coxs River: Consultant’s report (WallerawangDischarges.pdf, 1.99MB)
• Coxs River Biological Monitoring Autumn 2011: Consultant’s report (CoxsBiologicalMonitoring.pdf, 1.84MB)
• Assessment of the Impacts of Contaminants in Discharges to the Coxs River from Wallerawang Power Station (ContaminantDischargeCoxs.pdf, 189KB)

Discharge data and water quality data for the upper Coxs River

• Discharge quality parameters - weekly, monthly and quarterly data (DischargeParameters.pdf, 415KB)
• Water quality parameters (WaterQualityParameters.xls, 111KB)

The ecological reports and Delta’s discharge data and water quality data for the upper Coxs River, which include an array of water quality parameters, including electrical conductivity (salinity), sulfate, fluoride, aluminium, arsenic (total), boron, copper, nickel and zinc, were provided to the EPA for review in considering Delta’s application.