We are responsible for making sure that contaminated sites, including sites that have been used for activities that are likely to cause contamination, are managed in a way that protects public health and the environment in Queensland.
We do this by:
This guide explains how to meet your environmental duties and obligations when dealing with contaminated land. It also explains how to buy, sell, reconfigure and remove property listed on the land registers.
All persons have a general environmental duty (GED) under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 (EP Act) to not carry out any activity that causes, or is likely to cause, environmental harm unless the person has an authority to do so, or has taken all reasonable and practicable measures to prevent or minimise the harm.
Essentially a duty of care, the GED applies to all persons undertaking activities (including notifiable activities) in Queensland or outside Queensland that may affect Queensland's environment.
When dealing with land that is, or may be contaminated, you must meet the general environmental duty (GED) and also obtain any permits that may be required to carry out development on the land or to remove contaminated soil.
Landowners and occupiers of land must ensure that they meet their GED when using the land to ensure that any risks to human health and the environment are known and managed when there is:
Where the nature and extent of the contamination and associated risks to human health and the environment are not reasonably well known, meeting your GED would include actively seeking information to understand risks and implement measures to prevent or minimise environmental harm. For example, by engaging a suitably qualified person to investigate the site, prior to commencing an activity that may disturb contaminants.
If written notice is required to be given to the occupiers or registered owners of affected land, the person responsible for giving that written notice can use the Duty to notify form as a guide for what information to give, or alternatively use the form to provide to the owners/occupiers of the affected land.
There may also be a requirement or duty to notify of an activity or matter that may threaten or have caused environmental harm. See Duty to notify.
There are new notification requirements to report events or changes in condition that relate to contaminated land or notifiable activities that have occurred or are occurring on land.
If you have identified that you are required to notify the department of environmental harm, especially within a 24 hour period, refer to the Duty to Notify Guideline for detail on what is required and use the Duty to Notify form to provide the notification to the department.
Duty to notify does not apply if the event is authorised to be caused under:
Please have s320A of the EP Act open while reviewing this information. AA = Administrating authority BD = Business days
Written notice to:
Written notice to:
Notify employer no later than 24 hours of it the employer not contactable then written notice to:
Written notice to:
1 Unless there is a reasonable excuse, s320F provides defences and excuses for duty to notify.
2 Schedule 3 of the EP Act lists notifiable activities. Duty to notify applies to these activities.
3 If the person is not carrying out the primary activity (defined in s320A(1)) during the person’s employment or engagement by, or as the agent of, someone else.
A suitably qualified person has a duty to notify their employer or potentially the administering authority of an event related to contaminated land that has occurred.
Where a suitably qualified person or another employee has notified an owner or occupier, the owner or occupier would then have a duty to notify.
Further information is contained in the Guideline: duty to notify of environmental harm – ESR/2016/2271 (PDF, 290.3KB)
If you want to have land removed entirely from the land registers—Environmental Management Register (EMR) and the Contaminated Land Register (CLR)—you need to submit a contaminated land investigation document that demonstrates:
The term ‘land’ also includes the airspace in and above the land, surface water and ground water.
For further information about when land can be removed from the land registers refer to the Guideline: Listing and removing land on the land registers (PDF, 119KB).
You will need to submit a contaminated land investigation document if any details about hazardous contaminants affecting the land and its suitable uses changes or requires updating.
A contaminated land investigation document is any, or a combination, of the following:
A contaminated land investigation document must be prepared by a suitably qualified person and then certified by an auditor.
The outcome of the site investigation will determine whether the land is contaminated land and, if so, whether:
Any person, such as the landowner, occupier or suitably qualified person, can submit a contaminated land investigation document, however:
We endeavour to process the submission of a site investigation report or validation report within 20 business days. This also includes any site investigation report or validation report which is attached to a compliance permit.
Where the decision is made to remove land or make changes to the land registers, based on a site investigation report or validation report which meets the requirements, we issue a notice within five business days to the landowner and:
We decide draft site management plans (or draft amended plans) within 20 business days, unless there is a special circumstance that warrants an extension to the timeframe. Once we make a decision on a site management plan we issue a notice outlining the decision within five business days to the landowner and the person who submitted the contaminated land investigation document, if different to the owner.
If the plan is approved, the notice will also include a certificate of approval and a copy of the site suitability statement for the land. We also attach the site management plan to the relevant land register.
If you are the owner of a parcel of land which is listed on the Environmental Management Register (EMR) or the Contaminated Land Register (CLR), and you wish to reconfigure the lot, you need to be aware of the nature and extent of contamination present and any risks it may pose to human health or the environment. If you subdivide the lot and take no action to investigate or deal with any contamination issues, the lot remains on the EMR or CLR and any new lot is also automatically listed. You must then give notice to any potential buyers that the land is listed on the EMR or CLR.
If you do not want the land and/or the new lots to stay listed on the EMR or CLR, you will need to engage a suitably qualified person to conduct a site investigation. The site investigation process will confirm whether the site is contaminated and if so whether the contamination needs to be remediated, the contaminated portion excised appropriately during the design of the reconfiguration and/or managed under the conditions of a site management plan. Where new land parcels are deemed to be not contaminated land and suitable for any use the registered survey plan for the land must be submitted along with the auditor-certified contaminated land investigation document to enable the land to be removed from the land registers.
A landowner must, before agreeing to sell or dispose of land listed on the Environmental Management Register (EMR) or Contaminated Land Register (CLR), give written notice to the buyer. The notice must inform the buyer that the land is recorded on the EMR or CLR and provide details of any site management plan (SMP) for the land where applicable.
A landowner also has the obligation to give the buyer written notice should land be the subject of:
If the landowner does not comply with the above requirements the buyer may rescind the agreement by giving the owner written notice before whichever of the following happens first:
If a buyer rescinds the agreement, any person who has been paid an amount by the buyer must refund the money paid; and the buyer must return to the owner any documents about the disposal, other than the buyer’s copy of the agreement.
Where a landowner does not give the buyer the required notice before the agreement is signed, they may provide a written notice stating that the buyer can rescind the agreement within 21 business days after receiving the notice. If the buyer does not rescind the agreement within the specified period, they are taken to have waived their right.
If land is listed on the CLR, the landowner has the obligation to:
If the owner fails to give this notice the lessee, or the person proposing to lease the land, may terminate the lease by written agreement within 10 business days after becoming aware that the land is listed on the CLR.
Managing contaminated land, 29 Aug 2023, [https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/management/environmental/contaminated-land/assessing]
This document is uncontrolled when printed. Before using the information in this document you should verify the current content on https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/management/environmental/contaminated-land/assessing.