Managing contaminated land

Removing land from the land registers

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:

• no ongoing notifiable activity is being carried out on the land; and
• the land is not contaminated land and is suitable for any land use.

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).

Making changes to land listed on the land registers

What is a contaminated land investigation document?

A contaminated land investigation document is any, or a combination, of the following:

• a site investigation report
• a validation report
• a draft site management plan (or draft amended site management plan).

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:

• the contamination needs to be remediated, in which case a validation report must be prepared following remediation to confirm that the remediation process was successful; and/or

• the contamination is best managed under the conditions of site management plan, in which case a draft site management plan must be prepared and submitted for approval.

Submit a contaminated land investigation document

• Submit a contaminated land investigation document—approved form NOTE: this form needs to be downloaded and saved locally to fill in, save and sign digitally using Adobe Acrobat reader free software.

Who can submit a contaminated land investigation document?

Any person, such as the landowner, occupier or suitably qualified person, can submit a contaminated land investigation document, however:

• If the contaminated land investigation document is being prepared in order to comply with a notice we have issued, the person we issued the notice to must submit the document.
• Any draft site management plan (or amended plan) not prepared by the landowner must include a statement by the landowner agreeing to the draft plan.
• If a corporation is submitting the documents, an executive officer of the corporation is taken to be the ‘relevant person’ submitting the documents.
• The submission must be accompanied by a contaminated land auditor's certification.

Processing time

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.

Notification

Removals or changes to land registers

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:

• the person who submitted the contaminated land investigation document(s), if different to the owner
• the relevant local government authority, if land is removed from the EMR or CLR
• the Registrar of Titles, if the land is to be removed from the CLR or details about land are amended on the CLR.

Draft site management plans (or draft amended plans)

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.