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Notice of review of environment protection licences

The Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act), requires the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to review each environment protection licence at least once every five years.

These licences specify environmental performance requirements for certain industrial activities and each is reviewed to ensure it is ‘fit for purpose’. Where changes are necessary, appropriate conditions are generally negotiated with the licensee, taking into account factors such as development consent conditions, the surrounding environmental conditions, type of activity and available technology.

Members of the public have the opportunity to contribute to licence reviews and the EPA welcomes submissions regarding licence conditions from the public at any time.

You can obtain copies of each environment protection licence by:

• using the public register website to view, print or download a copy of the licence(s) you are interested in.
• telephoning Environment Line on 131 555.

To provide comments on a particular licence, contact:

          Head, Licence Administration and Revenue Unit
          NSW Environment Protection Authority
          PO Box A290
          Sydney South NSW 1232

 

Section 78 of the POEO Act sets out the EPA’s obligations regarding the review of licences. The EPA is required to report any failure to comply with the requirements to review a licence within a 5 year cycle to the Board of the EPA and in the EPA’s Annual Report, together with a statement of reasons for the failure.

Due to an administrative oversight, details of late licence reviews in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 financial years were not included in the relevant Annual Reports.

The table below identifies the number of licences that were not reviewed by the due date in 2010/11 and in 2011/12:

Year	Number of licence reviews	Number of licence reviews completed by due date	Number of licence reviews completed late
2010/11	591	556	35
2011/12	213	187	26

The reviews were not completed by the due date due to:

• Delays resulting from resolution of complex regulatory issues, including legal action;
• Delays where resources were directed to licences considered to be higher risk; and
• Delays resulting from system and business process changes.

In accordance with the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, the EPA has advised the EPA Board of these results.

This information will be published in the EPA’s 2012/13 Annual Report