The Tasmanian Environmental Protection Authority (referred to as the EPA, stylised as EPA Tasmania) is an independent regulatory body of the Tasmanian Government responsible for the environmental protection and management in the state of Tasmania, Australia. The EPA's primary role is to independently monitor, regulate, and enforce environmental laws and regulations to ensure the protection of Tasmania's natural resources and ecosystems.
The EPA was founded as an autonomous statutory body in accordance with the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994 (EMPCA), functioning as an essential component of Tasmania's Resource Management and Planning System (Tasmania).[2] In September 2021, it was announced that the EPA would separate from the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment (Tasmania) into a standalone independent government body.[3]
Agency responsibilities
The EPA holds significant importance due to its independent reporting, safeguarding and managing Tasmania's natural environment.
Environmental regulation
The EPA develops and enforces environmental regulations and standards to address various aspects of environmental protection, including air and water quality, waste management, pollution control, and biodiversity conservation.
Environmental monitoring
The agency monitors environmental conditions and assesses the impact of human activities on the environment. This involves conducting regular surveys, collecting data, and analyzing information to track changes in environmental quality and identify potential issues.
In 2023, renewables developer ACEN Australia was forced to revise its plans for a $1.6B wind farm on Robbins Island in Tasmania's north-west following a condition imposed by the EPA which required a five-month annual shutdown due to the migration of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot. The proposed 900-megawatt (1,200,000hp) Robbins Island wind farm's turbine count was reduced from 122 to 100, with maximum height lowered from 270 metres (890ft) to 212 metres (696ft).[4] The wind farm is vital for Tasmania's 200% renewable energy goal by 2040 and aligns with national emission reduction targets. The project, adjacent to Jim's Plain Renewable Energy Park, intends to span Robbins Island's western section with potential battery storage. While approved by the Circular Head Council, State and Federal Governments, the wind farm proposal has faced opposition by environmental groups, including the Bob Brown Foundation over ecological concerns.[5][6]
Licensing and permits
The EPA issues permits and licenses for various activities that have the potential to impact the environment. This includes industries, businesses, and other entities that may discharge pollutants into the air or water, generate waste, or engage in activities that could harm the ecosystem.
Compliance and enforcement
The EPA ensures that individuals and organizations adhere to environmental laws and regulations. It conducts inspections, investigates complaints, and takes enforcement actions when violations are identified. These actions can range from fines and penalties to legal action, depending on the severity of the violation.
Illegal dumping of industrial waste
In 2023, the EPA began investigating the illegal disposal of controlled waste at multiple sites in the state's north and north-west. The waste likely stems from scrap metal shredding and processing, containing plastics, foam, rubber, fabrics, wood fibers, soil, metals, hydrocarbons, and chemicals. Hundreds of tonnes of this material may have been misrepresented as inert or general waste. Suspected sites include private and municipal landfills, as well as privately owned land. Chemical analysis of samples reveals cadmium, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, hydrocarbons, and other contaminants, classifying it as controlled waste. Despite not being soil, the EPA rates it as level 4 contaminated soil due to high contamination. Safe disposal in Tasmania is limited to the Copping C-Cell facility, with approved transporters. The EPA is notifying relevant parties about environmental risks and checking for additional waste sites.[7] Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff urged the State Government to impose more stringent permit conditions, ensuring complete adherence and strict enforcement of any violations.[8]
Public awareness and education
The EPA plays a role in raising public awareness about environmental issues and promoting sustainable practices. It may engage in educational campaigns, provide resources for individuals and communities, and collaborate with stakeholders to foster environmental stewardship.
Policy development
The agency may contribute to the development of environmental policies and strategies at the state and local levels. This could involve participating in discussions, providing expert advice, and offering recommendations to government bodies.
Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments.Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the protection of living things from the harm that human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they depend.
Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Hazardous waste is a type of dangerous goods. They usually have one or more of the following hazardous traits: ignitability, reactivity, corrosivity, toxicity. Listed hazardous wastes are materials specifically listed by regulatory authorities as hazardous wastes which are from non-specific sources, specific sources, or discarded chemical products. Hazardous wastes may be found in different physical states such as gaseous, liquids, or solids. A hazardous waste is a special type of waste because it cannot be disposed of by common means like other by-products of our everyday lives. Depending on the physical state of the waste, treatment and solidification processes might be required.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate.
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters. Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced annually, as of 2017. Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.
Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm. Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemicals that can pollute the air and contaminate soil and water. Disposing of such waste is a major public health issue.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.
The Tasmanian Government is the democratic administrative authority of the state of Tasmania, Australia. The leader of the party or coalition with the confidence of the House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Tasmania, is invited by the governor of Tasmania to form government. The head of government is the premier of Tasmania.
Illegal dumping, also called fly dumping or fly tipping (UK), is the dumping of waste illegally instead of using an authorized method such as curbside collection or using an authorized rubbish dump. It is the illegal deposit of any waste onto land, including waste dumped or tipped on a site with no license to accept waste. The United States Environmental Protection Agency developed a “profile” of the typical illegal dumper. Characteristics of offenders include local residents, construction and landscaping contractors, waste removers, scrap yard operators, and automobile and tire repair shops.
In environmental law, the polluter pays principle is enacted to make the party responsible for producing pollution responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment. This principle has also been used to put the costs of pollution prevention on the polluter. It is regarded as a regional custom because of the strong support it has received in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries, and has a strong scientific basis in economics. It is a fundamental principle in US environmental law.
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, as in a garbage disposal; the two are sometimes collected separately. In the European Union, the semantic definition is 'mixed municipal waste,' given waste code 20 03 01 in the European Waste Catalog. Although the waste may originate from a number of sources that has nothing to do with a municipality, the traditional role of municipalities in collecting and managing these kinds of waste have produced the particular etymology 'municipal.'
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental agency for the state of Texas. The commission's headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. The fourth-largest environmental agency in the United States, it employs about 2,780 employees, has 16 regional offices, and has a $420 million operating budget for the 2016 fiscal year.
The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) is the law enforcement arm of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is made up of attorneys, special agents, scientists and other employees.
An ash pond, also called a coal ash basin or surface impoundment, is an engineered structure used at coal-fired power stations for the disposal of two types of coal combustion products: bottom ash and fly ash. The pond is used as a landfill to prevent the release of ash into the atmosphere. Although the use of ash ponds in combination with air pollution controls decreases the amount of airborne pollutants, the structures pose serious health risks for the surrounding environment.
Robbins Island is a 9,900-hectare (24,000-acre) island located in Bass Strait, lying off the northwest coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island, separated from the Tasmanian mainland by a highly tidal area known as Robbins Passage, lies south to the adjacent Walker Island.
Waste management laws govern the transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of all manner of waste, including municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste, among many other types. Waste laws are generally designed to minimize or eliminate the uncontrolled dispersal of waste materials into the environment in a manner that may cause ecological or biological harm, and include laws designed to reduce the generation of waste and promote or mandate waste recycling. Regulatory efforts include identifying and categorizing waste types and mandating transport, treatment, storage, and disposal practices.
Water in Arkansas is an important issue encompassing the conservation, protection, management, distribution and use of the water resource in the state. Arkansas contains a mixture of groundwater and surface water, with a variety of state and federal agencies responsible for the regulation of the water resource. In accordance with agency rules, state, and federal law, the state's water treatment facilities utilize engineering, chemistry, science and technology to treat raw water from the environment to potable water standards and distribute it through water mains to homes, farms, business and industrial customers. Following use, wastewater is collected in collection and conveyance systems, decentralized sewer systems or septic tanks and treated in accordance with regulations at publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) before being discharged to the environment.
Isle of the Dead is an island, about 1 hectare in area, adjacent to Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia. It is historically significant since it retains an Aboriginal coastal shell midden, one of the first recorded sea-level benchmarks, and one of the few preserved Australian convict-period burial grounds. The Isle of the Dead occupies part of the Port Arthur Historic Site, is part of Australian Convict Sites and is listed as a World Heritage Property because it represents convictism in the era of British colonisation.
Tasmania, as an advanced economy with a globally high standard of living, uses a great deal of energy. Distinctive features of energy use in Tasmania include the high fraction of hydroelectricity usage, the absence of coal-fired electrical generation, relatively light usage of natural gas, particularly for domestic use, and a wide use of domestic wood-burning stoves. Energy production through hydroelectricity has been politically contentious, and conflicts over Tasmanian hydroelectric projects were integral to the formation of Green parties in Australia and across the world.
Risdon Zinc Works is a major zinc refinery located in Lutana, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The smelter is one of the world’s largest in terms of production volume, producing over 280,000 tonnes annually of high-grade zinc, primarily as die-cast alloys and continuous galvanising-grade alloys. These products are exported for global markets and utilised in a wide range of industries and products, from building and infrastructure to transportation, business equipment, communications, electronics, and consumer goods. The facility produces zinc using the Roast, Leach, Electrowinning (RLE) method, creating leach byproducts, including cadmium, gypsum, copper sulphate, lead sulphate, sulphuric acid, paragoethite and leach concentrate. The refinery has been owned and operated by the global multi-metals business Nyrstar since 2007. Nyrstar Hobart works closely with the Nyrstar Port Pirie multi-metals smelter in South Australia. The facility is Tasmania's largest exporter, contributing 25% of the state's overall export value in 2013.
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