The Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994 (EMPCA) specifies the responsibilities of State and Local Government with respect to environmental regulation and management in Tasmania.
Broadly, level 1 activities fall to local government to administer, and level 2 activities are typically the responsibility of the EPA to regulate. Level 3 activities refer to projects of State significance under the State Policies and Project Act 1993, and can have components regulated either by local or State Government.
Level 1 activities are defined in EMPCA as "an activity which may cause environmental harm in respect of which a permit under the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993 is required but does not include a level 2 activity or a level 3 activity". There may also be activities that do not require a LUPAA permit, but which may also cause environmental harm, and the duty imposed by section 20A will apply.
Duty of councils to prevent or control pollution
Section 20A of
EMPCA specifies that: "In relation to activities other than prescribed activities, a council must use its best endeavours to prevent or control acts or omissions which cause or are capable of causing pollution".
In some circumstances the EPA may decide, or be requested by councils, to exercise its powers in relation to a level 1 activity.
Below is a list of non-prescribed activities that councils may consider in giving effect to Section 20A. Activities marked with an asterisk are non-prescribed if they do not meet or exceed the threshold set for that activity in Schedule 2 of EMPCA.
- Abattoirs and slaughterhouses *
- Abrasive blasting industries
- Bitumen plants *
- Building and development
- Car wash stations
- Catteries and kennels
- Cemeteries and Crematoriums *
- Ceramics and pottery *
- Chemical manufacturing *
- Chemical storage
- Coal processing *
- Commercial agriculture and aquaculture
- Commercial cooling towers
- Concrete batching plants
- Concrete product manufacturers *
- Crushing, grinding or milling *
- Detailers
- Distilleries and breweries *
- Domestic heat pumps
- Electrical industries
- Events
- Extractive industries and Quarries *
- Fabricators and Engineering works
- Fellmongers *
- Firebreaks and back-burning
- Fish processing *
- Foundries *
- Fresh produce processing *
- Garden suppliers – soils and organics
- General industries (e.g. transport sector)
- Granite and Stone Masons
- Intensive animal industries
- Laundries and Dry Cleaners
- Marinas and slipways
- Mechanical workshops
- Metal recovery
- Metal surface coating
- Milk and milk product manufacturers *
- Mineral works *
- Mining *
- Mobile activities (e.g. Mobile Mechanics)
- Nightclubs
- On-site wastewater treatment systems
- Organic resource recovery *
- Panel Beaters and Spray Painters
- Plastic product manufacturers
- Powder coating premises
- Printers
- Rendering or fat extraction industries *
- Service Stations
- Sewer pump stations
- Sporting facilities
- Stevedoring
- Tanneries *
- Textile industries *
- Tourism activities (e.g. jet ski, ferries)
- Trade waste generators
- Waste Landfill sites and Transfer Stations *
- Waste transporters *
- Wind turbines *
- Wood product manufacturers *
- Woodchip Mills *
- Wool scourers *